https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_Flyer The photo in this article shows another locomotive other than the silver painted Pacific that was used in the begining.
It's a two part story. Part One: The ICC made railroads charge by the mile. If another railroad had a shorter route, they didn't have to charge more for taking the long way round. They could charge for the same mileage as the shortest route. But they couldn't charge less than that. But the ICC didn't regulate bus travel the same way. So, the Santa Fe could compete with the San Joaquin Daylight, despite having a route that ran LA to the Valley the very long way around via Barstow, by having people ride a bus to Bakersfield. Not only was the bus faster through the mountains than the SP train called The Pokey, but the Santa Fe could undercut the SP by throwing in the bus ride for free. You rode from LA to Fresno, Modesto or Stockton, but only paid fare from Bakersfield. Throw in another bus ride across the still fairly new Oakland Bay Bridge, and they're undercutting the Coast Daylight too. LA to Frisco for, IIRC, under ten bucks. This was the advantage the Golden Gate gave them. Passengers had to switch from bus to train to bus, but they got a discount. Which made the Golden Gate popular enough to last for a quarter century. But when it was first introduced, as part of their streamlined explosion of 1938, it wasn't enough. So, they spiffed up some older equipment, and expanded the new bus fleet too. They called this the Valley Flyer. After the fair, this equipment saw some service running down to San Diego. But whether for easier maintenance, or because silver paint shows soot, and/or wartime scrap metal drives, the equipment was restored to their normal appearance before long.
I find it highly unlikely that ATSF would expended crew time necessary to turn cabooses at the ends of runs to maintain cupola direction for the return trip.
The Santa Fe in Santa Fe, NM, at the end of an 18 mile branch from the mainline at Lamy. Still stands today. From the late 1930s, John W. Barriger III Library.
Joliet, Illinois on May 18, 1963. R Wallin photo. Santa Fe had some of their passenger Fs geared lower so they could be used for freight occasionally. Sure made for a flashy freight train.
That's the California Limited on the right. On the left is, if I'm not mistaken, the newly expanded El Capitan.
Numbers 325 and higher were geared for 85 mph, instead of 100. They spent a good deal of their early careers idling in yards, so they'd be warmed up and ready to take over for whatever broke down. They were bought for dual service. The ALCO PAs weren't, but in their old age they were sent to the GC&SF, which used them the same way. They were reportedly good at handling tonnage across West Texas, 100 mph gearing and all. Can't find a pic, though.
Number 90, the Santa Fe's only Fairbanks-Morse passenger locomotive set. Kaiser, Cal. (near Fontana), in February 1955. Stan Kistler photo.
90 was so unreliable in the end that its last assignment was the Tulsan. That train only required 2000 horsepower (or less). That allowed for one unit to be in the shop at all times, while two units handled the train just in case one broke down. Handling the first section of the westbound Grand Canyon in somewhat happier days, green flags flying.
In the 1920s, the California Limited would often run seven sections per departure. This was a daily train which, naturally, ran both directions and and had a running time of about two and a half days. So when people said "The" California Limited, they were talking about up to 45 trainsets running at a given moment.
