Southern Pacific 4451

Southern Pacific Railroad's (SP) locomotive number 4451, nicknamed "Puff," was an EMD SD9 diesel locomotive. 4451 was part of SP's first order of 32 SD9s and delivered in 1954 with its original number, 5353. This order was assigned SP class DF-120 and numbered 5340-5371.

Southern Pacific 4451
April 1985 at SP's Lenzen St engine facility in San Jose. SD9's 4450 and 4451 (aka "Huff and Puff") and GP 9 #3187 in the proposed original Cal Train paint scheme.
Type and origin
Power typeDiesel
BuilderGeneral Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD)
ModelSD9
Specifications
Configuration:
​
 • AARC-C
Gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Career
Operators
Numbers5353, 5339, 3800, 4451
Delivered1954
Retired1998
Current ownerBUGX
Dispositionderelict, Schellville, California siding

History

The locomotive was assembled by EMD in April 1954 under EMD construction number 19442 and was initially assigned number 5353 post-delivery. As delivered, SP 5353 featured the "black widow" paint scheme, large Mars Signal lights at both ends (in fact, SP 5340-5371 were the only class of SP SD9s equipped with this large and distinctive light), and had a steam generator so that it could be used for passenger service. The whole class appears to have initially been assigned to the service district in Oregon.

SP 4451 wearing the "bloody nose" scheme in 1979 leading train #149 of the Peninsula Commute north from Santa Clara

SP 5353 was renumbered to 5339 in 1961, taking the number from an ALCO RSD-5.[1] In 1965, SP 5353 was painted into the grey and scarlet "bloody nose" paint scheme, and numbered SP 3800. It was later rebuilt at the SP Sacramento General Shops as part of SP's General Rehabilitation and Improvement Program (GRIP), and received the number 4451 on 14 February 1974.[2][1] SP 4450 & 4451 were the only two SD9s to retain their steam generators after being rebuilt.[3] Being that they were now the only two passenger equipped SD9s, they were transferred to the San Francisco–San Jose, California, commute service until Caltrain equipment arrived in 1985.

After 1985, 4450 and 4451 (nicknamed "Huff" and "Puff") were used all around the SP system for officers' specials and other passenger operations. They were favorites of railfans and usually worked together. After the Union Pacific Railroad took over SP operations in the mid-1990s, 4450 and 4451 were assigned to local freight service in the San Francisco Bay Area until 1998, when 4450 was purchased by the Golden Gate Railroad Museum at Hunters Point in San Francisco and arrived there on April 28, 1998.[3] After the Golden Gate Railroad Museum was evicted from its home in 2005, 4450 was sold to the Feather River Rail Society and was transferred to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California on December 30, 2006, SP 4450 left Hunters Point en route to Portola, where it was eventually declared surplus to the WPRM's collection and in August of 2013 was ultimately scrapped due to 4450’s poor condition and lack of alignment control couplers.

SP 4451 was retired in August 1995 and sold in January 1996 to Progress Rail,[4] who subsequently sold 4451 to Bruggere and Monson (BUGX) with the intention of eventually being transferred to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. It presently remains in derelict condition in Schellville, California.

References
  1. Gautreaux, Lee A. "SP 5353". Railfan Railgoat. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  2. Gautreaux, Lee A. "SP SD7/9 page: GRIP Program". Railfan Railgoat. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  3. "CADILLAC 4450 ARRIVES ..." Golden Gate Railroad Museum. 8 June 1998. Archived from the original on 1 September 1999. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  4. Sloan, Steve (2016). "Steve Sloan's Trains: Southern Pacific: Locomotives 3800-3999". Steve Sloan's Trains. Retrieved 4 July 2016.


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