Repainting a GS-4 tender

I have an all-black Broadway Limited HO scale model of a Southern Pacific 4-8-4 locomotive, Class GS-4. That is how these engines were painted once the red and orange Daylight paint scheme began to be removed in the early 1950s. But as I received it, the model is lettered in the pre-1946 lettering scheme, with the road name as “Southern Pacific Lines” in relatively small lettering (9 inches tall) and with a small, lower number on the back of the tender. 

Here is a view of one such prototype GS-4 locomotive, taken at Glendale on November 24, 1943. Locomotive 4431 is at the head end of No. 71, the “Coast Mail” and has been repainted black under wartime conditions (Fred A. Stindt photo, courtesy Bob Church). It’s interesting that the tender lettering is located high on the car side, where it had been in the Daylight scheme.

There are not many good photos of the backs of tenders, but the nearly identical SP tender class applied to the GS-6 locomotives were well photographed  by Guy L. Dunscomb at Oakland in March of 1947 (Arnold Menke collection). The small road number beneath the back-up light is evident.

The Broadway Limited model has these characteristics, as you can see below. But for my operating year of 1953, I definitely have to re-letter the tender. Few SP locomotives retained the pre-1946 lettering past the summer of 1947. The problem now is to research what new lettering to apply.

As I think most SP enthusiasts know, in 1946 SP replaced the scheme just shown with a dramatic increase in size of tender lettering (to 20 inches in height) and discontinued the word “Lines.” Details of the 1946 paint and lettering are contained in the Southern Pacific Painting and Lettering Guide, “Locomotives and Passenger Cars,” revised edition (J.A. Cauthen and J.R. Signor, SPH&TS, Upland, CA, 2019). Views of post-1946 locomotives in black paint are numerous, usually including tenders, as shown below (Bob Church collection).

Tender end numbers were enlarged also, and relocated above the back-up light. But it’s surprisingly hard to find an end photo of a black GS-4 tender in post-1946 lettering. Even Arnold Menke’s outstanding chapter on tenders in Bob Church’s Daylight engine book doesn’t have one (Robert J. Church, Southern Pacific Daylight Locomotives, Signature Press, Berkeley and Wilton, CA, 2004). 

But one of my favorite Don Sims photos does capture exactly that. Here we see GS-4 4448 at Bakersfield, just cut off from the San Joaquin Daylight after its run eastward down the valley. A set of F7 freight diesels will take the train over the Tehachapi. The end lettering is very clear.

This is how I will be re-lettering my GS-4 tender, as I will show in a future post.

Tony Thompson