American Freedom Train 4-8-4 4449 is back on familiar rails as it departs Los Angeles with Amtrak's Transcontinental Steam Excursion. Built by Lima Locomotive Works in May 1941 for the Southern Pacific’s Coast Daylight service, 37 years later it is once again on the SP’s Coast Line as the train heads to San Luis Obispo for the first leg of the trip to Oakland. (The train originated in Birmingham, Alabama, and the 4449 pulled a consist of Amtrak passenger cars on a series of day trips, with the cars full of enthusiastic riders, as it makes its way home to Portland, Oregon.)
