After the evaluators determined that 4449's bearings and rods remained in good condition, they selected the locomotive for that task.Ĥ449 was removed from display on Decemand restored at the Burlington Northern Railroad's Hoyt Street roundhouse in Portland. In 1974, 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. Holst died in 1972 and sadly never got to see 4449 return to operation. Holst kept the engines' bearings and rods oiled in case they were ever to move again. However, Jack Holst, a Southern Pacific employee, looked after SP 4449 along with two other steam locomotives, Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 and Oregon Railroad and Navigation 197. As a result, the locomotive quickly deteriorated. While on display, 4449 was repeatedly vandalized and had many of its external parts stolen, including its builder's plates and whistle. It was picked only because it was the first in the dead line and could be removed with the fewest switching moves. Since the equipment was considered obsolete, 4449 was not actively chosen for static display. In 1958, when most of the GS class engines had already been scrapped, a then black-and-silver painted 4449 was removed from storage and donated on April 24, 1958, to the City of Portland, Oregon, where it was placed on outdoor public display in Oaks Park. 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 placed in storage along with several other GS-class engines near Southern Pacific's Bakersfield roundhouse. 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. In late 1955, after being one of the last few Daylight steam engines in Daylight livery, 4449 was painted black and silver and its side skirting (a streamlining feature of the Daylight steam engines) was removed due to dieselization of the Coast Daylight in January of that year. 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. 4449 was reassigned to the Coast Division in the early 1950s. 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.Īfter the arrival of newer GS-4s and GS-5s, 4449 was assigned to Golden State Route and Sunset Route passenger trains. Ĥ449 was the last steam engine manufactured in Southern Pacific's first order of GS-4 (Golden State/General Service) locomotives.
In 1983, a poll of Trains magazine readers selected 4449 as being the most popular locomotive in the nation. The locomotive's operations are based at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland, Oregon where it is maintained by a group of volunteers named the Friends of SP 4449.
The locomotive has operated in excursion service throughout that area since 1984.
The City then put the locomotive on static display in Oaks Amusement Park, where it remained until 1974.Īfter this, 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. In 1958, the Southern Pacific donated the locomotive to the City of Portland, Oregon. 4449 was retired from revenue service in 1956 and put into storage. 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. GS is an abbreviation of "General Service" or "Golden State," a nickname for California (where the locomotive was operated in regular service). Southern Pacific 4449, also known as the "Daylight Express", 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 Museum of Transportation in St. Operational, based in Portland, Oregon at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center 4449 under steam at Cascades Rail in Tacoma, Washington in June 23, 2011Ĥ ft 8 + 1⁄ 2 in ( 1,435 mm) standard gauge
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