I think I rode in that blue car on one trip. It had wheel-driven a/c, so when we stopped in Salinas or slowed down in other parts of the Salinas Valley it got quite warm for a while.

During the early part of the thrice-weekly years of the Starlight, at least, there was a fill-in train between SF (later Oakland) and LA, sort of a commuter train, on that part of the Starlight's schedule. They didn't call it the "Daylight" but for practical purposes it was, using all SP equipment complete with the old SP vending machine car for food service. If it wasn't too crowded, they had no problem with coach passengers (ahem) visiting the obs car that was often on the tail.