Southern Pacific's Coast Daylight

One of the best known name trains of America's past was Southern Pacific's Coast Daylight which from March 1937 ran between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  This painting, one of a number from the early 1950s produced for California tourism, shows a Daylight steam-hauled by one of SP's GS-4 class 4-8-4 type locomotives.  Twenty eight of the oil-burning locomotives were built by Lima Locomotive Works in 1941 and 1942, but only one, number 4449, was preserved, now used on excursion trains.  Steam was replaced by diesel in January 1955.  As with other American passenger trains, it was taken over by Amtrak in May 1971 who retained it, but changed the route from San Francisco to Oakland so it could continue to Portland and Seattle.