Southern Pacific Daylights As They Were, 1940s to restoration

We start with Will Whitaker’s study of the Daylight locomotive in the ’40s & ’50s. View The Coast and Valley Daylights and a variety of other Southern Pacific steam engines. In the Tehachapis, over the Sierras and across the Nevada desert Whitaker caught all aspects of the famed “Daylight” GS 4: in orange and red, in black, with skirts and without. Daylights pull freights, commuters, fan trips and football specials. They haul or are doubled with such name trains legends as The Gold Coast, The San Joaquin Daylight and even The City of San Francisco.

BONUS: SP’s Centennial Engine steams through Niles Canyon. Then in Southern Pacific’s official “Farewell To Steam” Daylight GS 6 #4460 crosses the Sierras six days before her boiler time expires. This 1958 foray was intended to be the final movement of steam anywhere on the Southern Pacific system and upon her return to Sacramento Shops her rods were severed with a cutting torch so that steam could never run again on SP tracks. 4460 made this dramatic trip, unassisted in either direction except where a bearing runs hot. The DVD closes with 4449 heading for Railfair 1981 with the first cars in Daylight orange: storming the Cascades, snaking down to Dunsmuir and wide open on the valley floor on a fan trip. Here 4449 triumphantly brings SP steam back to life!