The Californian didn’t live to become a streamliner, although some streamlined chair cars were added to its consist in the ’30s. Soon after WWII, two Chicago-West Coast trains were “dropped,” one of them the Californian. What actually happened were name changes. The C&NW-UP Challenger became The Gold Coast and the RI-SP Californian became the Imperial. The roads felt that the overcrowding of the wonderful Challenger and Californian during the war years had left bad associations in prospective passengers’ memories. But at the standup bar pictured above, the passengers look content, if perhaps a little concerned about keeping their footing.

Southern Pacific photo reproduced here from Beebe and Clegg, The Trains We Road. I also posted this and the photo above it at my other blog, Writer Gary Garth McCann–Through My Eyes: Pictures and Words.