My Lovely Bride and I watched an old Frank Sinatra movie called “Pal Joey,” this afternoon. In the opening sequence, Frankie gets off the train after being thrown out of town for “dating” the mayor’s 17 y.o. daughter. As he walks into the station, he walks past none other than Southern Pacific GS4 X4443. My jaw hit the floor! Fantastic!
Curiously, X4443 was black, not Daylight. Can anyone tell me why? The movie was filmed in 56 or so.
Still, a good movie with songs and Frankie at his best.
There are a couple of reasons it could be black. Some were originally built during WWII unstreamlined and black and then later streamlined and painted daylight. In their latter years they were once again stripped of their shrouds for easier maintenance and also many were repainted black…cheap and easier to care for.
In the fifties virtually all the remaining operating GS’s were painted black and had their skirting removed. They were in their last days and no longer the darlings of the road being relegated to freights and a few railfan trips. I rode behind the black 4460 on a couple of “last steam” trips.
Also a few with full skirting were deliberately painted black during the steam era for trains heading north out of California because of the excessive grime they accumulated in the tunnels. I don’t recall how many were painted thus but I believe three or four anyway. Someone else may know.
Well, the 4443 still had it’s full skirting and looked like the 4449 did during it’s BNSF days a few years back. It probably was serving as a “tunnel motor.” No matter what, it was cool.