My good friend Ned called me at 5 a.m. one morning in 2010. He said, “Grab your camera; we’re going to photograph the Southern Pacific 4449!” I love trains and over the years have found that I am not alone. SP 4449 was a beauty and a real treat to watch as she pulled through the Sunset Junction building a head of steam for her final voyage home to Portland, Oregon. SP 4449 was built in 1941 as a GS-4 “Northern” type locomotive. A 4-8-4 wheel arrangement, she is 110’ long, 10’ wide and 16’ tall. The locomotive and tender weighs 433 tons and it operates with a boiler pressure of 300 psi. Her eight 80” diameter drivers and unique booster truck can apply 5,500 horsepower to the rails and exceed 100 mph. The only remaining operable “streamlined” steam locomotive of the Art Deco era, this grand Lady of the High Iron pulled Southern Pacific “daylight” coaches from Los Angeles to San Francisco over the scenic Coast Route and then on to Portland until 1955. Retired to static display at Oaks Park in 1958, most thought SP 4449 would never run again.
In 1974, SP 4449 was selected to pull the American Freedom Train throughout the United States and was subsequently rebuilt. SP 4449 ran for three years to the delight of over 30 million people. She is arguably one of the most beautiful locomotives ever built – and kept that way by the all-volunteer Friends of SP 4449!
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