GS2 or GS4 4-8-4 differences?

Which road name? Some of the GS class locomotive went to the Western Pacific....

Here is a picture of the GS 4 class and GS-64...

One of my favorite engines...

The non shrouded GS6 is a really nice engine...

Here is another shot of a GS 64 with smoke deflectors....

The Western Pacific did not have any GS-2 locomotives.

I believe only the Southern Pacific Railroad had these... here is an early photo of a Southern Pacific GS2... the GS3 also was very popular for the SP...

I couldn't say the road name as I don't know which owned which models. I was looking at the WP for examples. Maybe SP had more? I don't know.

I was after the development of the GS series and what they improved on each model. I believed there were models GS1 thru 4. I now see that you post a picture of a GS6. So it leads me to look for even more answers!

 Thank you! (though)

Great pics!

Correct. A GS-2 and a GS-3 each had a single headlight in the nose. The 2s had smaller driver and the 3s came out with 80" drivers. Driver size is the primary difference for the most part between 2s and 3s. There was a GS-5 but they looked almost exactly like the 4s, but with roller bearings. They only made two of them. The GS-4s had the big drivers, enclosed cabs, more streamlined looking tenders. The GS-6 was a hybrid between the 2s and 4s in a way. The WP ones were along the lines of a GS-6. Only one GS-6 still exists, at the museum in St Louis:

Thank you. Great info!

Neither of those two photos show a GS-4 locomotive.

Once you really get into this, you need Bob Church's book.  I think it is available from Signature Press, but not sure.  Don't get serious without it.

Joe, Check out this link as well as the imbeded links within each class description. Wikipeda has a lot of the pertinent info you are looking for.

http://espee.railfan.net/sp_steam_golden-state.html

Pete

correct your awake!

Its a typo ... should say GS6...and GS64...

Now the real question. Can anyone spot us some photos of correct passenger cars that went behind these?

The SP GS-6 class as well as the WP GS-64 class also had smaller drivers than the SP GS-3, GS-4, and GS-5 classes.

Thank you all again. I got confused as I saw different models over the years, some quantity of them in SP daylight paint. I didn't know if there were different models or why some just had different headlights.

 I've really got some more studying to do. I've never heard of "Pine Bluff" before.

http://www.signaturepress.com/church/DL.html

That's part of my 'hybrid' comment, in that is shared features with almost all the GS classes other than the 'elephant' ears of the WP locomotives. I didn't think the specifics on a GS-6 were all that terribly relevant to the original question being asked.

I sure don't know how "Pine Bluff" got into this discussion, but Pine Bluff is in Arkansas.

Sorry, I got that in Norton's link listing who built which models.

"Five 4-8-4's (#810-814) were built by Cotton Belt in their Pine Bluff Shops in 1937."

Yes, many, many times for many, many miles.

The SP GS-6, WP GS-64 and Central of Georgia's K Class were all built at the same time, basically to the design of the SP GS-2 class.

The Central of Georgia "Big Apples", as they were nicknamed, looked quite different from the others owing to the fact that they were not streamlined and trailed short tenders so they could be turned on the Central's existing turntables.

Looks like this is your book.

http://www.amazon.com/Southern...rch+Southern+Pacific

I just realized who you really are. Jack, right?

Right. Why did it take you so long?

One thing that I have found interesting about the SP GS series locomotives is this.  On the MT series 4-8-2 SP added their "sky-line" casings to them (even the non-SP MT-2 class), while the Baldwin built GS-1 class never received the sky-line casings like the Lima built GS locomotives.  Does anyone know why this was?

Stuart

Joe, check out "Those Daylight 4-8-4s" and "SP Daylight Locomotives" by Dr. Robert Church. They will answer any and all questions you may have.

I'd never seen a post from you that mentioned your association with 4449 before now. Frankly, you could have been any random strap-hanger in the steam field, otherwise, as all the other posts you'd made that I've seen were mostly about the UP steam situation... Lots of people post online about stuff like that when they don't have a clue what they're really talking about as they only have enough of an understanding of steam to sound like they know it all, which I'm sure you've seen the type I'm talking about.