SUNOL, Calif. - The Golden Gate Railroad Museum's ex-Southern Pacific 4-6-2 No. 2472 made test runs on Feb. 18 after six years of boiler work. The museum spent over $250,000 to return the engine to service.
No. 2472 was first fired up on Feb. 16 with adjustments made to appliances and to check for leaks. Regular passenger operations on Pacific Locomotive Association's Niles Canyon Railway on Feb. 17 prevented test runs that day, but on Monday Feb. 18, after taking on more than 3,000 gallons of oil, the engine made several runs on the Niles Canyon Railway main line at Brightside Yard. The engine also made a number of runs from Brightside to Sunol to check on lubrication and journals with no problems found.
Baldwin built Southern Pacific No. 2472 in 1921. It served for several years on Overland Route passenger runs between Ogden, Utah, and the San Francisco Bay area. After being replaced by larger 4-8-2 locomotives, No. 2472 worked other passenger assignments and finished its days pulling commuter trains between San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., along with occasional freight runs.
On April 10, 1959, No. 2472 was donated to San Mateo County, which put it on display at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds. The engine remained there until 1976 when a group of volunteers decided to restore it. SP No. 2472 is one of three surviving Southern Pacific 4-6-2s. For more information visit
www.ggrm.org.
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