Help with passanger train arrangement

eltripon

New Member
Can anyone help me set the order and number of cars for a passanger train leaving Washington DC headed for Los Angeles circa 1907?

Thanks.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
There were no trains running all the way across. Sometimes one car would be switched in Chicago, but everyone else changed trains. ("A hog can cross the country without changing trains, but you can't.")
Most transcontinental trips changed in Chicago, but there were some that switched in the South.
General passenger train arrangement:
Baggage & Mail cars
Day coaches.
Sleeping cars.
Lounge cars (first class but not sleepers) probably with a platform on the last one.
Dining cars among the sleepers and lounges, possibly among the day coaches.
Private and official cars tacked on the rear.
Sometimes there might be groups of cars that would be cut off for some intermediate destination not on the main route.
There might be extra express boxcars/reefers at the front.
Numbers of cars would vary with the marketing of the train. All-Pullman trains didn't come in until the 20s or 30s. (Confirm?)
A mail train might be almost all mail cars with a coach or sleeper tacked on the back.
 

Dave1905

New Member
A train between Washington and LA doesn't even exist under Amtrak.

If you went PRR you could go to chicago, the ATSF to LA.
You could also go B&O to Chicago.

You could go B&O via St Louis, then MP to KC and ATSF to LA or SSW to Texarkana and SP to LA or MP to Texarkana, TP to El Paso and SP to LA.

You could go south on the L&N or SOU to New Orleans or Memphis, then SP to LA or MP to Houston and SP to LA.

In any case it would require a minimum of 2 different trains with two different sets of cars.

Dave H.
 
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