This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from a 1944 advertisement for Shell Oil Industrial Lubricants, featuring a fanciful view of a Southern Pacific Railroad GS-4 locomotive on a lube rack, being serviced at a Shell service station. The image uses the huge locomotive to promote the extreme durability of Shell lubrication products.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" and 24”x36” formats are excellent image sizes that look great as a stand-alone piece of art, or grouped as a visual statement. The 24”x36” posters have a 1” white border. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD GS-4 LOCOMOTIVE
The Southern Pacific GS-4 is a streamlined 4-8-4 "Golden State" type steam locomotive used on the Southern Pacific Company from 1941 to 1958. They were built by the Lima Locomotive Works and were numbered 4430 through 4457. "GS" stands for "Golden State" or "General Service."
HISTORY
Unlike the GS-3, the GS-4 had a dual-headlight casing (top headlight was a mars light) on the silver smokebox. Another change was the all-weather cab. It retained the skyline casing atop of the boiler, skirting on the sides, an air horn to supplement the whistle and teardrop classification lights. They carried the orange and red "Daylight" paint scheme.
The GS-4s were passenger engines capable of 110 mph, though timetable speed limit never exceeded 75 mph (A maximum speed of 75 mph was allowed in the Salinas Valley). Southern Pacific's premier passenger trains were pulled by GS-4s, the Coast Daylight, San Joaquin Daylight, Lark, Cascade, Golden State and Sunset Limited. During wartime and in the first years after the war some of the GS-4 locomotives were painted black; by 1948 all had been repainted into Daylight colors. Starting in 1947 most were painted black again and had their side skirts removed for easier maintenance, and were reassigned to the San Jose-San Francisco commuter trains, freight service and the occasional San Joaquin Daylight (steam locomotives remained on that train as late as 1956 which made the San Joaquin Daylight the last streamliner train to be pulled by steam on the Southern Pacific) until new diesels arrived and they were retired.
The last GS-4 engines were deskirted and painted black in 1956; a GS-4 pulled its last passenger train in October 1958. All GS-4’s were retired by 1958.
GS-4 number 4443 pulled one of the final steam excursions on the Southern Pacific in 1957, and appeared in the opening credits of the Frank Sinatra film Pal Joey. SP 4449 (Southern Pacific 4449) appeared in the 1986 movie Tough Guys as the Gold Coast Flyer. In the screenplay, the 4449 was hijacked, and then crashed through the Mexican border in the movie; however, a wooden and fabric full-size scale model was used to depict the crash. The actual SP 4449 was returned unscathed to the private group that maintains it. An unknown GS-4 appeared in the movie Dear Heart as the 20th Century Limited, and another GS-4 appeared as the main setting for Strangers on a Train.
