Steam & Excursion > This Superpower Locomotive Certainly Is Striking In Appearance!

No one can seriously dispute the fact that Lima's Daylight locomotives built in the 1930's and 1940's for Southern Pacific were among the most beautiful steam locomotives ever built.  From their tasteful streamlining to their striking orange, red and black paint scheme, these locomotives stood out in their day as some of the most eye-catching locomotives ever built.

SP #4444 certainly fits this description to a tee.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/20 00:19 by LoggerHogger.

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Is that Doyle in the Cab!   Wish full thinking. 
 

Seeing the cab forward in  the picture it is 20 or more years pre-Doyle and, while it is the same style locomotive, it is 4444 not 4449.

Wonder if they had a nickname for 4444?   The All Fours? 

The design was so good that even with the skirts removed and in black they still looked good.

The photographer in Martins's photo was shooting B&W film with a red filter. That is why the side panels are so dark. With unfiltered B&W, you get a lighter tone for the orange. 
Here are three of my images made on Kodachrome in 2009 in Franklin Park, Chicago with an Argus C-3.
The color shot is a straight scan.
In a straight conversion to B&W, the side panels are a light tone.
In the third shot of mine, by applying a red filter in Lightroom, it shows the same effect as what happened in Martin's shot. It makes the side panels unusually dark.
Normally, you use a red filter on B&W film to make blue skies dark. Ansel Adams used this to great effect. However, weird things can happen like here with too dark orange or white flesh tones going chalk-like. So I think the original photographer had been shooting under sunny skies and forgot to take the filter off. 
:-)

Dennis Livesey
New York, NY

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Jsporseen Wrote:
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> Seeing the cab forward in  the picture it is 20
> or more years pre-Doyle and, while it is the same
> style locomotive, it is 4444 not 4449.

A WAY too serious reply to a not at all serious post?

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Another possibility is that the photographer used orthochromatic black and white film and not panchromatic.  

Jim Maurer

Tominde Wrote:
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> Wonder if they had a nickname for 4444?   The
> All Fours? 

I wondered that same thing! Like for most machinery, I bet the name depends on the machines' performance...

Cheers, Dave

Yeah, ortho film is the first guess.
Wonder why photographers used that --
was it cheaper, or did they actually like it better?

timz Wrote:
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> Yeah, ortho film is the first guess.
> Wonder why photographers used that --
> was it cheaper, or did they actually like it
> better?

Ortho film is a simpler emulsion. It was available before panchromatic film was developed, and even after panchromatic film was introduced (circa 1906), ortho film was less expensive.

Some used it because they were used to the look they got from Ortho. Some used it because it was less expensive. Current users (yes, it's still available!) of course use it for it's look.

 

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL