The GS-3 was a class of streamlined 4-8-4 "Northern" type

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

operated by the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

(SP) from 1938 to 1957. A total of fourteen were built by the

Lima Locomotive Works Lima Locomotive Works (LLW) was an American firm that manufactured railroad locomotives from the 1870s through the 1950s. The company's name is derived from the location of its main manufacturing plant in Lima, Ohio ( ). The shops were located be ...

, numbered 4416 through 4429. GS stands for "Golden State" or "General Service."

History

The popularity of the Southern Pacific

Coast Daylight The ''Coast Daylight'', originally known as the ''Daylight Limited'', was a passenger train on the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, via SP's Coast Line. It was advertised as the "most beautifu ...

trains was overwhelming and prompted the Southern Pacific to initiate plans to introduce several new streamlined, lightweight trains: the '' Noon Daylight'', the '' San Joaquin Daylight'', and the ''

Lark Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...

''. A second order for 14 additional Daylight engines was placed with Lima Locomotive Works. All engines were set up upon delivery at El Paso, Texas. Number 4416 was the first and was set up on November 3, 1937. Number 4429 was last and set up on December 30, 1937. The GS-3 had an appearance similar to the GS-2. They featured a silver

smokebox A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is ...

with a cone-shaped single headlight casing, skyline casing on the top of the boiler, skirting on the sides, an

air horn An air horn is a pneumatic device designed to create an extremely loud noise for signaling purposes. It usually consists of a source which produces compressed air, which passes into a horn through a reed or diaphragm. The stream of air cau ...

to supplement the

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

, and teardrop classification lights. The only significant difference in appearance was the increase in driver size. They received the orange and red "Daylight" paint scheme. They were primarily used on Southern Pacific's premier

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line, as opposed to a freight train that carries goods. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) push-pull train, ...

at the time, the ''Coast Daylight''. In later years after being replaced by newer

GS-4 The Southern Pacific GS-4 is a class of semi-streamlined 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) from 1941 to 1958. A total of 28 locomotives were built by Lima Locomotive Works (LLW) in Lima, Ohio, wi ...

class engines, they were painted black, had their side skirting removed for easier maintenance, and were reassigned to San Jose-

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Peninsula Commute The Peninsula Commute, also known as the Southern Pacific Peninsula or just Peninsula, was the common name for commuter rail service between San Jose, California, San Jose and San Francisco, California, San Francisco on the San Francisco Peninsu ...

'' service, freight service, and made occasional appearances on the ''San Joaquin Daylight''.

Preservation

After retirement in 1957, all GS-3s were scrapped. However, one wheel from No. 4422, the first axle, right side, was rescued just before scrapping by William B. Fletcher. It was donated to the

RailGiants Train Museum RailGiants Train Museum is a List of railway museums, railroad museum of historic trains located at the Fairplex in Pomona, California, United States. It is owned and maintained by the Southern California Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Hist ...

at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California where it is on display.

Accident

On December 31, 1944, GS-3 4425 was hauling the ''

Pacific Limited The ''Pacific Limited'' was an American named passenger train which from 1913 to 1947 was jointly operated by three railroads on the Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad), Overland Route between Portland, Oregon, Oakland, California, Los Angel ...

'' passenger train westbound near Bagley,

Weber County, Utah Weber County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 262,223, making it Utah's fourth-most populous county. Its county seat and largest city is Ogden, the home of Weber State Univers ...

when it was run into from behind by Mt-4 4361, pulling a mail express train. The first train had slowed because of a freight train ahead of it, but the second train's crew failed to see the signal in thick fog and collided with the first train at 50 mph. 50 people were killed and 81 injured in the disaster.

References

Bibliography

External links