Bs 4449

[Mohammed Faerber]

SouthernPacific 4449, also known as the Daylight, is the only surviving example of Southern Pacific Railroad's "GS-4" class of 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotives and one of only two GS-class locomotives surviving, the other being "GS-6" 4460 at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. GS is an abbreviation of "General Service" or "Golden State," a nickname for California (where the locomotive was operated in regular service).

The locomotive was built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the Southern Pacific 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. No. 4449 was retired from revenue service in 1956 and put into storage. In 1958, the Southern Pacific donated the locomotive to the City of Portland, Oregon. The City then put the locomotive on static display near Oaks Amusement Park, where it remained until 1974.

After this, No. 4449 was then restored to operation for use in the American Freedom Train, which toured the 48 contiguous United States as part of the nation's 1976 Bicentennial celebration. The locomotive has operated in excursion service since 1984.

The locomotive's operations are now based at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland, Oregon where it is maintained by a non-profit group of volunteers named "The Friends of SP 4449". In 1983, a poll of Trains magazine readers selected 4449 as being the most popular locomotive in the United States.[3]

No. 4449 was the last steam engine manufactured in Southern Pacific's first order of GS-4 (Golden State/General Service) locomotives. No. 4449 was placed into service on May 30, 1941, and spent its early career assigned to the Coast Daylight, Southern Pacific's premier passenger train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, but it also pulled many other of the SP's named passenger trains.

One of 4449's career highlights occurred on October 17, 1954, when SP 4449 and sister Southern Pacific 4447 pulled a special 10-car train for the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society from Los Angeles to Owenyo, California, and return. In late 1955, after being one of the last few Daylight steam engines in Daylight livery, No. 4449 was painted black and silver and its side skirting (a streamlining feature of the Daylight steam engines) was removed, as no longer needed due to dieselization of the Coast Daylight in January of that year.

No. 4449 was then assigned to Southern Pacific's San Joaquin Valley line, occasionally pulling passenger trains such as the San Joaquin Daylight between Oakland and Bakersfield as well as fast freight and helper service.[4] No. 4449 was semi-retired from service on September 24, 1956, and was kept as an emergency back-up locomotive until it was officially retired on October 2, 1957, and was stored along with several other GS-class engines at Southern Pacific's Bakersfield roundhouse.

In 1958, when most of the GS class engines had already been scrapped, the then black-and-silver painted No. 4449 was removed from storage and donated on April 24, 1958, to the City of Portland, Oregon,[3][5] where it was placed on outdoor public display near Oaks Park.[6] No. 4449 was not specifically chosen for static display, rather, it was picked only because it was one of the desired 4000 series locomotives and the first in the dead line and could be removed with the fewest switching moves.[citation needed]

While on display at City of Portland's Oaks Pioneer Park, No. 4449 was repeatedly vandalized and had many of its external parts stolen,[7] including its builder's plates and whistle. As a result, the locomotive quickly deteriorated. However, Jack Holst, a Southern Pacific employee and member of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, looked after SP No. 4449 along with two other steam locomotives, Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 and Oregon Railroad and Navigation 197. Holst kept the engines' bearings and rods oiled in case they were ever to move again. Holst passed away in 1972 and sadly did not get to see his efforts come to fruition with No. 4449 returning to operation three years later in the spring of 1975.[8]

In 1974, No. 4449 was evaluated for restoration after becoming a candidate to pull the American Freedom Train, as its size, power and streamlining made it a good fit for that Bicentennial train. After the evaluators determined that 4449's bearings and rods remained in good condition, they selected the locomotive for that task.

No. 4449 was removed from display on December 13, 1974, and restored at the Burlington Northern Railroad's Hoyt Street roundhouse in Portland. The locomotive returned to operation on April 21, 1975, wearing a special paint scheme of red, white and blue.[9]

Because the original whistle had been stolen, two replacement whistles were fitted to the locomotive: a Hancock 3 chime from a Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway Challenger on the driver's side, and a second Hancock 3 Chime off of another Daylight Locomotive, on the fireman's side.[10] The latter would eventually be swapped out for a Southern Pacific 6 Chime. Both whistles used on the fireman's side came from private collectors.

As part of the 1975-1976 bicentennial American Freedom Train, No. 4449 pulled the display train through most of the contiguous United States.[9][11] The 4449 only pulled the Freedom Train in the Western portions of the country, whereas in the Eastern portions of the train were pulled by Reading 2101, which had recently been restored by Ross Rowland, and in Texas the train was pulled by Texas and Pacific 610. The 4449 pulled the American Freedom train for a total of 82 of 138 stops for the bicentennial event.

After the Freedom Tour ended, No. 4449 pulled an Amtrak special, the Amtrak Transcontinental Steam Excursion during 1977. After nearly two years on the road, 4449 was returned to storage in Portland, this time under protective cover and not exposed to the elements.[12]

In 1981, SP 4449 was returned to its original "Daylight" colors for Railfair '81 and the opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, along with UP 8444 and UP 3985.[12] Prior to this trip, a Southern Pacific 6 chime whistle from a Cab forward type locomotive was mounted on the fireman's side and would remain on the locomotive throughout most trips in the 1980s. In 1984, 4449 pulled an all-Daylight-painted train from Portland via Los Angeles to New Orleans, Louisiana and back, to publicize the World's Fair, with UP 8444 there too. The 7,477-mile (12,033 km) round trip was the longest steam train excursion in the history of the United States.[13] However, this trip was not flawless. On June 11, No. 4449 was approaching Del Rio, Texas, still on its way to New Orleans, when the retention plate that holds the draw-bar pin in place somehow disconnected and fell in between the ties, allowing the tender and the entire consist to uncouple, while the locomotive accelerated all by itself. Fortunately, Doyle noticed this after checking the rear-view mirror and quickly applied the brakes. The locomotive backed-up, the fallen parts were recovered, the connections were quickly repaired, and No. 4449 and its consist proceeded to run only slightly behind schedule.[14]

In 1986, No. 4449 went to Hollywood to appear in Tough Guys and pulled business trains for the Southern Pacific.[15] 4449 had a notable moment in 1989 when it and another famed locomotive, Union Pacific 844, made a side-by-side entrance into Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in 1989 for the station's 50th-anniversary celebrations.[16] The two locomotives then ran side by side on Santa Fe's and Southern Pacific's parallel main lines through Cajon Pass,[16] although 4449 eventually had to stop due to an axle hot box.

Sometime between May and July 1989, the No. 4449's SP&S Hancock whistle was set aside for the SP&S 700 and a Northern Pacific Hancock 3 chime was fitted on the engineer's side. This whistle would remain on the locomotive for the next 21 years. Later that same year, 4449 would later appear in the 1990 drama film Come See the Paradise. In late 1990, the Cab Forward whistle was returned to its owner.[17]

On April 26, 1991, No. 4449 returned to Railfair '91 in Sacramento, again with UP 844 and UP 3985 and the newly restored Southern Pacific 2472. It attended the next year's NRHS Convention in San Jose with No. 2472 and Union Pacific 3985.[18] On this trip, 4449 carried a member's Star Brass 5 Chime whistle off a CB&Q M-4 class Locomotive on the fireman's side.

The locomotive would return to Railfair once again in 1999, co-starring with Santa Fe 3751 and Union Pacific's 844 and 3985. This was the last time she traversed the route of the Shasta Daylight, whose tracks are now owned by the Union Pacific.

In 2000, No. 4449 was repainted black and silver for a Burlington Northern Santa Fe employee appreciation special. It was traditional for Southern Pacific to paint freight locomotives in black, and 4449 and other GS locomotives received this treatment when the diesels took over their passenger assignments. In the case of BNSF, a Class 1 freight carrier, No. 4449 was given old historical treatment. BNSF C44-9W No.4449 was lashed in to provide dynamic brakes when descending down grades. Many railfans agree it was rather humorous for BNSF to choose C44-9W No. 4449 as the dynamic brake unit given its shared cab number with the 4-8-4. Following the BNSF special, the BNSF emblems were removed and "Southern Pacific Lines" was added to the tender, a reminder of when No. 4449 was repainted to black with SP lettering in late 1955. No. 4449 was originally planned to remain in the black scheme for a few years. However, plans changed following the 9/11 attacks.

No. 4449 was repainted into the American Freedom Train paint scheme again in early 2002, after the events of the September 11 attacks.[19] In the fall of 2004, No. 4449 returned to the classic Daylight paint scheme, this time in its "as-delivered" appearance.[20] It appeared in the autumn of 2004 with the then-extant Montana Rockies Rail Tours company, pulling (with a diesel helper behind it) two summer excursion trips between Sandpoint, Idaho and Billings, Montana, including stops at the Livingston Depot.

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