SP's "Golden State" GS-locos and other 4-8-4's

Gunzels, Gricers, Railfans, Foamers, Anoraks, Ferroequinologists, lend me your ears! For I come not to praise the past month, but to bury it and declare the month of Rail-pril!

I don’t have any prompts for Rail-pril, other than celebrating railbased transport, real or fictional.

Have fun!

Here’s a blast from the past!

I reckon it fits Harry’s retro tendencies, don’t you?

I haven’t drawn a 4-8-4 since I drew N&W 611 back in September 2025, so here is my drawing of the Rock Island R-67, also my first drawing of 2026.

Reference Image: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheRockIsland/posts/24290295597339828/

It's called, 'Collection-X'

@4449fandom think these locomotives will be called the "X-Men"???

I sense similar material for origin story in this Top Secret "Location X"

4-8-4 “Heavy Mountain” ATSF 3751 seems to have been photographed quite a bit, for some mysterious reason…

(ATSF called their 4-8-4 Northerns “Heavy Mountain”, “New Mountain”, or “Mountain 4-wheel trailer” and called their 4-8-2 Mountains “Mountains”…)

I mean, it was photogenic—but that alone doesn’t explain it…

Built in 1927 and retired in 1958, it may just be that gave railfans 30 years to photograph it … #railfan

Huh. ATSF was a pioneer in intermodal trains, even in 1947, apparently…

4449 in Michigan

Here we see the famous locomotive, Southern Pacific 4449, on a cross-country excursion trip back in 2009. This was shot along the former Michigan Central just west of Augusta, Michigan. And that is indeed a large concrete coaling tower still standing astride the tracks in the distance.

The train is headed back west, to its home in Portland, Oregon, by this stage. For a video of this wonderful, if anachronistic vision, please go to this link. The video is not nearly as sharp as the static image, but it does contain sound, which is worth the loss of image quality.

Lima built  GS-4  “Golden State” Class  4-8-4 #4443

Jeremy Frankovis