Southern Pacific No. 4449

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Southern Pacific 4449
Notice: Please use the updated infobox (Template:Infobox Locomotive)
4449 At Night
Number	4449
Max speed	110 MPH
Power	Steam
Wheel config	4-8-4
Valve gear type	Walschaerts
Builder	Lima Locomotive Works
Build date	May 20, 1941

Southern Pacific No. 4449 is a class GS-4 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works of Lima, Ohio in 1941 for the Southern Pacific Railroad. As of today, it is owned and operated in excursion service by the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland, Oregon.

History

4449 entered service as the last of her batch of the class on May 30, 1941, and was prevalent on the "Coast Daylight" service between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California in its early years. Later reassigned to the Southern Pacific's Coast Division, it lost its Daylight colours to plain black in 1955 and finished its service on the San Joaquin Valley line. Officially retired from revenue service in October 1957, 4449 was pulled off the Bakersfield roundhouse scrap-line and donated to Oaks Park in Portland, Oregon in April 1958. It was repeatedly vandalized in the following years but retired Southern Pacific employee Jack Holst (who died in 1972) kept the wheels oiled and motion greased in case of interest in its future operation.

In around the mid 1970s, an idea was sparked to hold a special event known as the American Freedom Train (AFT), to celebrate 200 years of American Independence. There were various options of which locomotives to use, but when they came across 4449, its sturdy design and well-oiled bearings ensured it would pull the majority of the AFT. In December 1974, 4449 was pulled out of Oaks Park to undergo restoration. From August 1975 to December 1976, 4449 began its new career by having shared duties with Reading T1 No. 2101 and Texas & Pacific No. 610 pulling the AFT throughout the U.S during their Bicentennial.

4449 is still in operation today at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center along with Spokane, Portland & Seattle No. 700 and the soon-to-be restored Oregon Railroad & Navigation No. 197.

Southern Pacific 4449 (clip)

Trivia

• 4449 was painted black with light gray lettering when it was first preserved and retired (like with most of the other members), but eventually restored to its original "Daylight" scheme after hauling the American Freedom Train during the 1970s.
• 4449 hasn't visited its original birthplace in over 40 years.
• As a joke, the crew of 4449 briefly renumbered the locomotive to 845 and 844B during a doubleheader excursion with Union Pacific No. 844 back in 2007.
• 4449 did several doubleheader excursions with UP 844 recently in 2007 and 2008.
• Its top speed is 110 MPH and its power output is 5,500 HP.
• 4449 made an appearance in the 1986 film Tough Guys dressed as the Gold Coast Flyer with Doyle McCormack - caretaker of 4449 since its restoration - as the engineer in the film where it was hijacked by Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as escaped convicts and was taken down the Eagle Mountain Railroad.
  • A full-size wooden dummy replica appeared in the crash scene.
• As of late 2021, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center is considering on installing Positive Train Control (PTC) technology on 4449.
• 4449 wore a Hancock Longbell 3-Chime whistle during its service life, the whistle was stolen by bandits and two replacement whistles were used. A Hancock 3-chime whistle from an SP&S Challenger that was mounted on the driver's side, and a Southern Pacific 6-chime whistle from a Cab Forward locomotive that was mounted on the fireman's side. When Spokane, Portland & Seattle No. 700 was restored to operating condition, the 3-chime was taken off of 4449 and placed on SP&S 700. A Hancock 3-chime whistle from a Northern Pacific Challenger was placed on the driver's side of 4449, with the SP 6-chime being stolen during the 1990 season. After being on the locomotive for 21 years, the NP 3-Chime whistle was taken off of 4449 on December of 2010. This was because the whistle only had one of its three chimes working, so as a result, an authentic flat-top Hancock 3-chime whistle that came from an unknown GS-class locomotive was hitched onto the GS-4. After it's 1472-day inspection in 2015, the flat-top whistle was replaced with a step-top Hancock Longbell 3-chime whistle that came from Southern Pacific No. 4452. It still wears the whistle to this day.
• In early May 2023, 4449's auxiliary water tender was moved to Canada where it will be temporarily repainted into Canadian Pacific livery to be used as a second auxiliary water tender for Canadian Pacific No. 2816 in preparation for its upcoming excursion from Calgary, Alberta to Mexico City, Mexico and back to celebrate the completion of the Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern merger. Once this continental excursion is complete, 4449's auxiliary water tender will be repainted back into the Southern Pacific Daylight livery and moved back to Portland, Oregon.

Gallery

• Full Gallery

Southern Pacific 4449 before a Christmas excursion.

SP 4449 during the late '60s in Oaks Park, Oregon.

SP 4449 in 2000.

4449 at Hotlum, CA.

Locomotives of the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation
Owned:	SP #4449 • SP&S #700 • OR&N #197
Visited:	PLCo No. 2