Other transcontinental routes reached elevations of more than 7,000 feet (2,100 m) in the Santa Fe railway near Flagstaff, Arizona, and Union Pacific near Sherman, Wyoming.

At 2340 miles it was one of the longest continuous passenger railroad routes in the United States,[1] to be exceeded by the SP's Imperial and by Amtrak's pre-2005 Sunset Limited.

The train was inaugurated on November 2, 1902, as the Golden State Limited between Chicago, Kansas City, El Paso, southern Arizona and Los Angeles.

At 2,762 miles (4,445 km) it had the longest route in the United States and second only to the Canadian Pacific Railway's Imperial Limited in North America.

In summer 1926, the train left Chicago at 8:30 PM CST and arrived Los Angeles 68 hr 15 min later.

After World War II, the Rock Island and Southern Pacific considered a new 39¾ hour (the accepted fast schedule between Chicago and Los Angeles/San Francisco) streamliner to be named the Golden Rocket.

The Golden Rocket was to have two sets of equipment (one supplied by each railroad) and compete with Santa Fe's Super Chief, another train between Chicago and Los Angeles.

The Rock Island ordered cars with a red and silver color scheme, lettered for the Golden Rocket.

The Southern Pacific was not as enthusiastic, primarily because of upgrades needed on the El Paso–Kansas City portion of the route, which was single track and poorly signaled.

Smooth-sided and corrugated stainless steel equipment were mixed and heavyweight baggage, Railway Post Office (RPO) and dormitory cars were common.

The train carried linked sleeping cars from other carriers: in Kansas City, it picked up a Rock Island Railroad sleeping car from Minneapolis and at the same station it picked up also a Missouri Pacific Railroad sleeping car from St. Louis,[4] The train had a coordinated connection with the National Railway of Mexico's (NdeM) El Fronterizo (7/8) in El Paso, Texas; this NdeM train continued to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Mexico City.

The train was combined with Southern Pacific's New Orleans to Los Angeles Sunset Limited west of El Paso after April 1964.

[8] Amtrak's Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and New Orleans uses the Golden State's route west of Yuma.

For many years travelers could connect here to go north and south between El Paso and Denver, the only other route being the Santa Fe to Albuquerque with a second change of trains at La Junta, Colorado.

During 1926-29 and after 1948 the Golden State was an extra-fare train, supposedly to account for the costs of the luxury service and the reservation system for chair car seating.

The $3.50 extra fare for chair car passengers had the advantage of individual reserved seats and modern, leg rest, air-conditioned coaches.

Shortly before World War II, three streamlined dining cars (Yucca, Saguaro and Ocotillo) were built by Budd for service on the train.

Streamlined 44 and 48 reclining seat leg-rest (long-distance) low-capacity chair cars from both the Southern Pacific and Rock Island were added to the Golden State as they were built.

[9] Between 1947 and 1950, after the demise of the Golden Rocket, streamlined sleeping, chair, meal and lounge cars were added.

The Southern Pacific assigned five older heavyweight mail-baggage cars numbered 5065-5069 which were painted in the new red and silver scheme.

All other options featured one or two heavyweight cars, which is why the Golden State could actually never be considered a full streamliner train.

After 1953, when the red and silver paint scheme was discontinued, the names were gradually removed from the Southern Pacific cars and replaced by numbers.

but these, along with a “Western” series of 12 roomette, 4 double bedroom cars built for the Wabash and Union Pacific, were extra spacious.

Dieselization began on the Rock Island immediately post-war with A-B and A-B-B sets of EMD E6, E7, E8 and sometimes even Alco DL units being assigned to the train.

In 1947 Southern Pacific bought three 6,000 hp (4.47 MW) A-B-B sets of EMD E7 units in the vermilion and silver (aluminum) colors.

Until 1954, the Rock Island diesel units were painted in the original red, maroon and silver “Rocket” colors.