my ESPEE MODELERS ARCHIVE

California's Railroad to the U.S. 1861 - 1996

Southern Pacific

Passenger Trains

The Shasta

This information has been compiled from postings to the SP Mailing list.

In a 1937 Employee Timetable it lists a train called the Shasta as Train #7/8, this would have been a heavyweight train. The streamlined Shasta Daylight did not run until 1949.

The 1946 SP Equipment circular lists The Shasta; train #327/328

• mail baggage
• baggage express
• 10-1-2 sleeper
• cafe lounge
• and coach.

Schedules of the Klamath and Shasta were interlaced when they both ran, the former via the Cascade line and the latter the Siskiyou line. The Shasta was the last Siskiyou through train, pulled off in the late 1930s. For quite some time in the 1930s, and again from 1949 the Klamath was the third and bottom-ranked train on the Portland line, making all stops. Power was mostly 4300s. But GS-1s were used regularly in Oakland-Portland passenger service until a number went to Texas in the early 1940s. GS-6 class acquired in 1943 replaced them in the Portland pool. For some time in the 1930s, Portland Division P-8 and P-10 class Pacifics were used on trains 7-8 between Portland and Klamath Falls.