The ''Cascade'' was a passenger train of the Southern Pacific on its route between

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, and

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...

, with a

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. The first such cars s ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. The Southern Pacific started the train on April 17, 1927, soon after the opening of its Cascade Line between Black Butte, California, and

Springfield, Oregon Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. Located in the Southern Willamette Valley, it is within the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. Separated from Eugene to the west, mainly by Interstate 5, Springfield ...

. At first the train offered first class service and a $3.00 extra fare; it became an all-Pullman train in 1937. On August 13, 1950, the ''Cascade'' became a streamlined coach/Pullman train with a triple-unit

diner A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a co ...

and cars painted in two shades of gray. The next 21 years saw a decline. The Seattle sleeper was discontinued in 1966, the triple-unit diner came off a year later. By 1970 the train was down to five or six cars and ran only three days per week.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

would take over the ''Cascade'' on May 1, 1971, and would combine it with the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

–

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

Coast Daylight The ''Coast Daylight'', originally known as the ''Daylight Limited'', was a passenger train on the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, via SP's Coast Line. It was advertised as the "most beautiful ...

'' routing the train through Oakland and eventually renaming it the ''

Coast Starlight The ''Coast Starlight'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formati ...

''.Southern Pacific Timetable, June 1, 1970Southern Pacific Historical Society

History

The Shasta Route into Oregon was completed on December 17, 1887, connecting California points to Portland, Seattle, and the Pacific Northwest. The ''Oregon and California Express'' was the first passenger service; it later gained fame as the ''Shasta Limited''. But the route over the

Siskiyou Mountains The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and located in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately from east of Crescent City, California, northea ...

of Southern Oregon was difficult with steep grades, sharp curves, and subject to landslides and washouts. During the reign of Edward H. Harriman Southern Pacific began building a better route via Klamath Falls. Government involvement in the affairs of Harriman and the SP would delay completion for 18 years. Southern Pacific Cascade 1935

Trains began using the new

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or Cascade Line in 1926, but passenger service began several months later after the old Weed Lumber Company line south of Grass Lake was replaced. The ''Cascade'' would offer better service than the '' Shasta Limited'' (which in 1926 was scheduled 27 hours Portland to San Francisco). At first the train had a $3.00 extra fare and numbers 17 and 18. This train would survive the depression through consolidations and a change of numbers (19 and 20). The extra fare was dropped. With the better economy Southern Pacific re-equipped the ''Cascade'' and by 1937 it was an all-Pullman train with numbers 23 and 24 and a schedule under 20 hours. For three years during World War II the ''Cascade'' was combined with the ''

Beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

''. After the war the train got new equipment and a faster schedule. On June 5, 1950, the first streamlined Pullman was placed in service on the route. Southern Pacific was also experimenting with diesel power. The result would be the greatest presentation of this train; a faster, dieselized, streamlined, all-Pullman, daily overnight service second-to-none.

Southern Pacific Streamliner ''Cascade''

:Trains 11-12 :Oakland – Portland - Seattle :Service Start - August 13, 1950 :Oakland – Portland - Daily overnight All-Pullman - 713 miles - 16 hours 45 minutes :#12 Depart Oakland - 4:35PM, Arrive Portland - 8:15AM :#11 Depart Portland - 4:45PM, Arrive Oakland - 8:20AM :Connecting service to San Francisco was provided by ferry until 1958 when switch was made to bus service over the Bay Bridge The streamlined ''Cascade'' became the SP's overnight train between

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

with through sleeping cars to and from Seattle. It was the second all room sleeping car train along the west coast. The new thirteen car

Pullman Standard The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...

built consists were initially powered by A-B-B sets of

EMD E7 The E7 was a , A1A-A1A passenger train locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois. 428 cab versions, or E7As, were built from February 1945 to April 1949; 82 booster E7Bs were built from March 1945 to ...

diesels but were replaced in weeks by A-B-A sets of

ALCO PA The ALCO PA was a family of A1A-A1A diesel locomotives built to haul passenger trains. The locomotives were built in Schenectady, New York, in the United States, by a partnership of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and General Electric ...

passenger diesels painted in daylight colors. The ''Cascade'' cars painted in the two tone Gray of the ''

Lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark oc ...

'' and '' San Francisco Overland'' trains. The Southern Pacific streamlined ''Cascade'' began service on August 13, 1950, and was an all Pullman train for the shortest length of time, for beginning October 11, 1950, the ''Cascade'' began to carry coaches between Oakland and Portland. The through sleepers to Seattle numbered four and traveled north from Portland in the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

(UP) pool train to Seattle Union Station. Upon arrival in Seattle the four sleeping cars were switched out and transferred to the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, w ...

(NP) on the other side of Fourth Avenue viaduct at the

King Street Station King Street Station is a train station in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is served by Amtrak's '' Cascades'', ''Coast Starlight'', and ''Empire Builder'', as well as Sounder commuter trains run by Sound Transit. The station also anchors ...

. The next morning these four through sleeping cars would depart Seattle in the NP pool train and transfer to the ''Cascade'' that afternoon in Portland for the trip to Oakland.

Inaugural Train #11

:6005

-1 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Cab Unit :5911 ALCO PB-1 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Booster Unit :6007 ALCO PA-1 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Cab Unit :6500 Baggage Car :6600 Baggage

Railway Post Office In Canada and the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly tr ...

Car :9300 22-Roomette Sleeping Car :9400 12-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :9030 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :10280 Articulated 21- Crew Dormitory Kitchen Car :10281 Articulated 44- Seat Dining Room Car :10282 Articulated 44- Seat Tavern Lounge Car :(CASCADE CLUB) :9118 4-Compartment 4-Double Bedroom 2-Drawing Room Sleeping Car :9031 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :9032 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :9301 22-Roomette Sleeping Car :9053 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car (Blunt End) Sleeping cars 9118, 9031, 9032 and 9301 originated in Seattle and were carried by NP pool train from there to Portland.

Inaugural Train #12

:6006 ALCO PA-1 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Cab Unit :5912 ALCO PB-1 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Booster Unit :6008 ALCO PA-1 2,000 HP Diesel Passenger Cab Unit :6501 Baggage Car :6601 Baggage 30’Railway Post Office Car :9302 22-Roomette Sleeping Car :9401 12-Double Bedroom sleeping Car :9033 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :10283 Articulated 21- Crew Dormitory Kitchen Car :10284 Articulated 44- Seat Dining Room Car :10285 Articulated 44- Seat Tavern Lounge Car :(CASCADE CLUB) :9119 4-Compartment 4-Double Bedroom 2-Drawing Room Sleeping Car :9034 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :9035 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car :9303 22-Roomette Sleeping Car :9054 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom Sleeping Car (Blunt End) Sleeping cars 9119, 9034, 9035 and 9303 were Oakland – Seattle cars forwarded in the UP pool train to Seattle. After arrival in Seattle at Union Station they were turned over to the NP under the 4th Ave. viaduct and went to the NP- GN coach yard for cleaning and servicing for the next mornings departure in the NP pool train from King Street Station to Portland. The streamlined ''Cascade'' was an all – Pullman train only until October 10, 1950, when coaches were added to the train sets. Coaches 2425 and 2431 operated in one consist and 2433 and 2437 operated in the other consist. No coaches were through cars to Seattle; all Coach travelers crossed the platform in Portland to the waiting UP pool train northbound to Seattle. Southbound coach passengers from Seattle arrived in Portland on the NP pool train and again crossed the platform to the waiting ''Cascade''.

The final years

Through sleeping car service to and from Seattle ended January 9, 1966. The triple-unit diner came off a year later. Southern Pacific tried to replace it with an automat service but the Oregon Public Utility Commission balked, forcing the railroad to place a regular diner on the train. The two-tone gray colors were already gone, replaced by SP's new passenger color scheme of ''

Sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spr ...

''-style aluminum mist with red letterboard. Yellow sleeping cars from the '' City of San Francisco'' and ''San Francisco Overland'' trains were also seen in the nightly consist. By 1970, after trying for two years to discontinue the service, Southern Pacific was allowed to trim the ''Cascade'' to triweekly. By this time, the train had a later departure time allowing daylight viewing of the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east ...

and part of the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

Amtrak takes over

A quasi-government agency, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation – or Amtrak – took over the remains of America's passenger train system on May 1, 1971. The ''Cascade'' was included but was combined with the San Francisco to Los Angeles ''Coast Daylight''. With service rerouted through Oakland, the train was rechristened as the ''Coast Starlight''. It continued to run triweekly north of Oakland, but its popularity would lead to restoration of daily service in 1973.