C. P. Huntington
Preserved American 4-2-4T steam locomotive
C. P. Huntington is a 4-2-4RT type steam locomotive on static display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, USA. It is the first locomotive purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, carrying that railroad's number 1, and it is named after one of the Big Four who founded it.
History and career
C. P. Huntington was originally purchased by Central Pacific Railroad (CP) in 1863 as that railroad's number 3, along with its sister engine T. D. Judah (CP no. 4). It was CP's third locomotive after Gov. Stanford (number 1, built by Norris Locomotive Works) and Pacific (number 2, built by Mason Machine Works). The locomotive is named in honor of Collis P. Huntington, the third president of the Southern Pacific Company (parent company of Southern Pacific Railroad). CP used the locomotive beginning on April 15, 1864, during construction of the western portion of the First transcontinental railroad in North America.
Southern Pacific (SP) purchased C. P. Huntington from CP on February 5, 1871, gave it their number 1, and used it in light service in northern California. It was rebuilt twice, first in 1873 with new valves and again in 1888 with a new boiler built by CP's Sacramento shops. In 1888 the locomotive was also put on public display for the first time in Sacramento.
The public source identifies “C. P. Huntington” as preserved American 4-2-4T steam locomotive. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Huntington, Preserved and American.
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This entry incorporates text from “C. P. Huntington” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.