Southern Pacific 4451

Southern Pacific Railroad's (SP) locomotive number 4451, nicknamed "Puff," was an EMD SD9 diesel locomotive. 4451 was part of SP's first order of 32 SD9s and delivered in 1954 with its original number, 5353. This order was assigned SP class DF-120 and numbered 5340-5371.
History
The locomotive was assembled by EMD in April 1954 under EMD construction number 19442 and was initially assigned number 5353 post-delivery. As delivered, SP 5353 featured the "black widow" paint scheme, large Mars Signal lights at both ends (in fact, SP 5340-5371 were the only class of SP SD9s equipped with this large and distinctive light), and had a steam generator so that it could be used for passenger service. The whole class appears to have initially been assigned to the service district in Oregon.
SP 5353 was renumbered to 5339 in 1961, taking the number from an ALCO RSD-5. SP 4450 & 4451 were the only two SD9s to retain their steam generators after being rebuilt. After the Golden Gate Railroad Museum was evicted from its home in 2005, 4450 was sold to the Feather River Rail Society and was transferred to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California on December 30, 2006, SP 4450 left Hunters Point en route to Portola, where it was eventually declared surplus to the WPRM's collection and in August of 2013 was ultimately scrapped due to 4450’s poor condition and lack of alignment control couplers.
SP 4451 was retired in August 1995 and sold in January 1996 to Progress Rail, who subsequently sold 4451 to Bruggere and Monson (BUGX) with the intention of eventually being transferred to the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. It presently remains in derelict condition in Schellville, California.

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