N-C-O had two former Pullman sleeper-buffet cars, but their train was an all day trip. I think it is assumed that they were used as first class parlor cars.

SP did offer a through sleeper on the Modoc for a short time after standard gauging. As I recall it ran out of Portland, switched over at K Falls to the Modoc, then to Sparks, then east to Ogden and beyond(?)

SP also ran a sleeper for a while to Lone Pine/Owenyo after completion of the Jawbone. Through Pullman came out of Los Angeles on the "Tehachapi", switched over in Mojave at 0 dark thirty, then arrived in early morning. Return trip left around 10p, so I presume was timed for an early am arrival in Los Angeles.

I think SP ran through sleepers as the "Tonopah Express" out of Oakland(?) to Sparks, then down the branch to Mina, then to Tonopah over the Tonopah & Goldfield. This would have been after the former C&C line and Tonopah Railroad were standard gauged, and just while Tonopah was booming. SOmething in the back of my mind recalls a claim that the N-C-O buffet sleepers came from the Tonopah Railroad, so maybe they brought them from Colorado and offered a Mound House to Tonopah service for the few years it was narrow gauge.

The Tonopah & Tidewater was trying to push Death Valley as a tourist attraction, so they had a Brill doodlebug that towed a Sleeper a few trips a week from their Santa Fe connection. The final miles were narrow gauge with another Brill (now operating at Laws).

I think there should be a distinction as to who offered actual Pullman service, either their own cars or off a connecting railroad versus special movements. In season, Yosemite Valley did move sleepers to El Portal but I don't remember if they were picking up a through sleeper of the ATSF or SP or these were chartered trains/movements.

Secondary services should also be considered. For years there was a nightly train out of Portland with sleepers that split at Eugene for a morning arrival in Marshifeld/Coos Bay or Ashland (and the corresponding return to Portland) until 1953.


I think it should also be just as much fun to imagine riding some of the mixed trains. It looks like SP managed to get out of the mixed train business fairly quick in Oregon - by WW2 buses had taken over. I think the last SP mixed in Oregon was probably on part of the Tillamook branch.

SP in Nevada had the nightly mixed between Sparks and Mina until circa 1956/7 that carried an RPO. The Hazen-Fallon mixed disappeared about he same time. I believe the UP ran a mixed out of Idaho to Wells, Nevada into the 1960s.

There was a short lived Mojave-Searles mixed, probably to connect with Trona's own mixed or doodlebug? The Jawbone had a mixed train Mojave-Owenyo until around 1940/1 with an RPO.

The SD&AE ran a mixed fairly late, but the last few years it was only on the Mexican side.

The SP had some mixed trains on the T&NO with one lasting long enough the last runs were supposed to be with an SP 44 ton.

There was a group of mixed trains on the SP in Arizona/New Mexico that lasted fairly late. While not a mixed, the Tomahawk ran Globe to Bowie and return with a 70 ton, RPO/Bag and coach until 1953 when SP got Greyhound to provide alternate service. There was a Tucumcari-Dawson/French mixed until the line was abandoned in 1961 (part of it was later rebuilt as the ATSF York Canyon line). A SP 70 ton handled a mixed six days a week out of Benson to Fairbank, Tombstone/Patagonia until the lines were abandoned circa 1960/1. The last SP mixed may have been between Clifton and Lordsburg that went until at least 1966.

At this point, I mourn the loss of the SP and several of my favorite lines that I actually saw like Searles-Lone Pine, the Modoc, Tennessee Pass, Mina-Thorne, etc. Not to mention some lines now closed or abandoned that I used to run trains.