| Southern Pacific 4449 Glides thru Glacier National Park to events back east in July 2009. It is the only surviving example of Southern Pacific Railroad's (SP) GS-4 class of steam locomotives. The GS-4 is a streamlined 4-8-4 (Northern) type GS stands for "Golden State" (a nickname for California or "General Service." The locomotive was built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, for SP in May 1941; it received the Red and Orange "Daylight" paint scheme for the passenger trains of the same name which it hauled for most of its service career. 4449 was retired from revenue service in 1957 and put on static display in Oaks Park, Portland, Oregon, the following year, where it remained until 1974. It was restored to operation for use in the second American Freedom Train, which toured the 48 contiguous United States for the American Bicentennial celebrations. Since then, 4449 has been operated in excursion service throughout the continental US; based at the Brooklyn roundhouse in Portland where it is maintained by a group of dedicated volunteers called Friends of SP 4449. Placed into service on May 30, 1941, assigned to the Coast Daylight, SP's premier passenger train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, 4449 was semi-retired from service on September 24, 1956, then donated to the city of Portland, Oregon, on April 24, 1958 where it was placed on outdoor public display in Oaks Park.. It was evaluated for restoration in 1974 after becoming a candidate to pull the American ... |
