© 2004 Michael M. Palmieri

The Sunset was the last of the Southern Pacific's major trains to be streamlined, and it was the only one initially equipped with Budd-built stainless steel cars.  In June 1948, the Espee ordered 73 cars from the Budd Company specifically for this train.  The $15 million order was delivered between March and July 1950, and the re-equipped train was officially inaugurated on 20 August 1950.  The streamliner operated on a 42-hour schedule, which was five hours faster than the previous eastbound time and and 3½ hours faster westbound.

The train in this Southern Pacific publicity photo consisted of two Alco PA1 locomotives and 13-cars.  It included a railway post office-express car, a baggage-dormitory car, a 48-seat divided coach, a 44-seat coach, a Pride of Texas coffee shop-tavern-lounge car, two more 44-seat coaches, two 10-roomette/6-double-bedroom sleepers, an Audubon Dining Room car, a French Quarter Lounge, and two more 10-6 sleepers.  The last sleeper had a modified rear end, for a more streamlined appearance.  This was the train's usual consist east of San Antonio through most of the 1950's.  West of El Paso, the tran was usually powered by three E-units, and included a Dallas-Los Angeles 10-6 sleeper (via the Texas & Pacific) and an El Paso-Los Angeles 44-seat coach.

The train is powered by two of the 12 PA1's delivered to Espee subsidiary Texas & New Orleans between June and August 1949.  Originally numbered 200A, B-205A, B; they were renumbered 200-211 between January and March 1950.  All 12 were eventually leased to the Espee and renumbered.  The 202 was built in June 1949 as the 201A.  It was transferred to the Espee in December 1958, renumbered 6061 in March 1959, and traded in on a General Electric U25B in March 1963.

This publicity photo featured the same Alco PA1 as above, but the train only had 12 cars.  No. 2 was in the broad curve between Roanoke and Jennings.

In 1948, the City of New Orleans and most of its railroads began work on a new passenger station, New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.  NOUPT was placed in partial operation – for Illinois Central, Espee, and Missouri Pacific's Gulf Coast Lines – on 8 January 1954; and the new station's very first train was the eastbound Sunset, which backed in on Track 12 at 4:35 P.M.  The city's mayor and other officials and guests had boarded the train at Carrollton Station and rode it into the new terminal.  (The first departure was IC's Panama Limited at 5:00 P.M.)

By mid-April, all of the passenger trains serving New Orleans were using NOUPT; and for the first time, all of the city's railroads could conveniently exchange passenger cars here.  At this same time, the Espee was receiving its very last new passenger-carrying cars; 15 more 44-seat Budd coaches, incluing seven for the Sunset.  In November 1954, a New York-Los Angeles sleeping car began operating via the Crescent and the Sunset.  At least three Crescent sleeping cars received red letterboards for transcontinental service on the Espee before the service ended in October 1956.  Meanwhile, in 1955, the Pride of Texas cars had been remodeled into 32-seat hamburger-grill cars.

On 18 June 1959 an E9A, a PA, and another E9A lift the eastbound Sunset through the West High Curve on the Huey Long Bridge.  The train's second and third cars are heavyweight baggage cars.

It's late afternoon on 29 March 1961 and the eastbound Sunset has just backed into NOUPT.  The crew has already removed the train's number from F7A 6190's number boards, and the locomotives are about to go to the engine terminal.  The other units are FP7A 6456, and F7B's 8122 and 8136.  The locos and most of the train will head back west at 10 P.M.