SP's GS Locomotives

Wow !

Robert Hale's photography remains in my all-time favorite category !

boin106 posted:

I was looking for something in one of our storage closets and ran across a stack of old 8 x 10 B&W photos of SP trains. Several years ago, the photos were given to me by railroad author Dick Donat. They were from his collection. The photos were taken by Bob Hale in the early to mid 1950's. I have scanned a few of them. The GS locomotives with numbers 4458 and 4459 were apparently the only two with roller bearings. Two are pics of the trains leaving San Francisco. On the back of the photo of the 4457 it says, "Lark headed for SF." 

Not sure about the location of the first pic but the other two were taken at Mission Bay Tower, where the passenger roundhouse and coach yards for San Francisco were located.

Note the details like the telltails to warn crewmen on the roofs of cars about the tunnel, just behind the bridge the photographer was standing on. Also the split-rail derails protecting the switch in the right foreground to prevent equipment from rolling out to the main line.

Here is a 1946 aerial photo of the area. The overpass the photos were taken from is at bottom center.