4-8-4 Daylight

The **4-8-4 Daylight** is a steam locomotive in the game Railroad Tycoon II. It becomes available in the year 1937, and is a strong locomotive with a moderate top speed, that can be useful for hauling both heavy passenger and freight loads over long distances at a decent speed. However, it is a very expensive locomotive both to purchase and maintain, so it can really only be used on routes where it's speed and power is absolutely necessary for it to more profitable. It can haul 300 tons of cargo, at a very respectable speed of 60mph, while on flat track.

## Strategy

When this locomotive becomes available, it should be a replacement to Mikado locomotives that are hauling heavy freight over long-distances, because the Daylight is much quicker than the Mikado, and is only slightly more expensive. However, the Mikado is still the better choice if grades on the route are over 4%. Anything other role however, would probably better be performed by the 4-6-4 Hudson (also available in 1937), due to it's faster speed and cheaper maintenance costs. Also, if electrification is possible, then the Daylight is effectively obsolete to the GG1 if the scenario are outside Europe. Overall though, the Daylight has some major flaws, such as the fact that both it's acceleration and reliability are very poor compared to other locomotives of the era, and it's very fuel costs are very high for a medium-speed locomotive. The lifetime of the Daylight lasts until the diesels of the late 1940's become available such as the F3A+B or F9, as they are much faster and stronger than the Daylight, and run at similar costs.

## History

The 4-8-4 Daylight is based upon the Class GS-4 locomotive for the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was nicknamed the Daylight after the signature route it was running on for the majority of it's career. The **GS-4** is a streamlined 4-8-4 Northern 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."

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 (180 km/h), though timetable speed limit never exceeded 75 mph or 121 km/h. 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 March 1950 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 January 1957. All 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*.