Union Pacific train 101, the City of San Francisco, near Cheyenne, Wyoming on December 4, 1948
|
The City of San Francisco was a streamlined through passenger train which ran from 1936 to 1971 on the Overland Route between Chicago, Illinois and Oakland, California, with a ferry connection on to San Francisco. It was owned and operated jointly by the Chicago and North Western Railway (1936–55), Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (1955-71), the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Southern Pacific Railroad. It provided premium extra fare service from Chicago to San Francisco when introduced in 1936 of 39 hr 45 min each way.
At 9:33 on the evening of August 12, 1939, the westbound City of San Francisco (TR 101) derailed while crossing bridge #4 in Nevada's Humboldt River canyon 40 miles west of Elko between the towns of Harney and Palisade killing 24 and injuring 121. The wreck appeared to have been caused by sabotage, but despite a major manhunt, offers of reward, and years of investigation by SP, the case remains unsolved as to the perpetrators.
Competing streamlined passenger trains were, starting in 1949, the California Zephyr on the Western Pacific, Denver and Rio Grande Western, and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroads, and starting in 1954, the San Francisco Chief on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. As with the City of Los Angeles, many of the train's cars bore the names of locales around its namesake city, including Mission Dolores, the nickname given to San Francisco's Mission San Francisco de Asís.