Southern Pacific 9
Southern Pacific #9 is a 4-6-0 oil-fired narrow gauge steam locomotive, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in November 1909.
Nevada-California-Oregon 9 Southern Pacific 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||
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SP (ex NCO) #9 on display at Laws Railroad Museum, Bishop California. | |||||||||||||||||||||
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It was originally built for the Nevada–California–Oregon Railway and was sold to Southern Pacific in the late 1920s. The engine worked the rest of its career on the SP narrow gauge. The locomotive, along with sisters #8 and #18, were nicknamed "The Slim Princess" for riding along the western and eastern deserts of Nevada and California.
The narrow gauge 4-6-0 weighed 88,000 pounds (40 t) when empty.
In 1954, there was a plan to purchase a new narrow gauge diesel from GE as SP #1, to replace numbers #9, #8 and #18. Whilst #8 and #18 were sold off, #9 was kept on as a standby locomotive to support diesel locomotive #1 in case of a breakdown.
The engine and the two others, #8 and #18, survived into preservation. Southern Pacific #9 is now on display at the Laws Railroad Museum in Laws, California.