Southern Pacific 2472 is test-fired NEWSWIRE

SUNOL, Calif. – The Golden Gate Railroad Museum has announced that its Southern Pacific 4-6-2 No. 2472 has been successfully steam-tested as mandated by federal regulations under the 1,472-day inspection rules. Locomotive reassembly is continuing, and the group expects the locomotive to be complete in the near future. The Golden Gate Railroad Museum was evicted from its former site at the Hunters Point Naval Base in late 2006 and moved to the Niles Canyon Railway in Sunol, on the other side of the San Francisco Bay.

Baldwin Locomotive Works built No. 2472 in 1921. Southern Pacific classified the 2472 as a P-8, along with 14 sister engines built from the same Baldwin order for 4-6-2 Pacific types. Its first assignments were passenger trains on the Overland Route between Ogden, Utah, and Oakland, Calif. When larger and more powerful Mountain type engines (4-8-2) replaced Pacifics on long runs, they were relegated to locals and commuter service on the San Francisco – San Jose run.

No. 2472 served for almost 36 years on the Southern Pacific. It was retired in 1957 and put on display at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds in 1959. There it sat until 1976, when a group of volunteers decided to restore it. No. 2472 is one of three surviving Southern Pacific 4-6-2 locomotives.