Southern Railway 4-6-2 1380: The Streamlined Ps-4

Published: September 16, 2026

The Southern Railway streamlined exactly one steam locomotive. Ps-4 Pacific 1380, Alco construction number 64857, left Schenectady in 1923 as an ordinary USRA-pattern heavy 4-6-2. In 1940–41 Spencer Shops put Otto Kuhler’s bullet nose, skyline casing, and skirting on her so the new all-coach Tennessean would have matching steam between Washington and Monroe, Virginia. Norfolk & Western would not let Southern diesels run Lynchburg–Bristol. One Pacific was the answer. No second Ps-4 was ever given the same treatment. 1380 kept the casing until she was cut up at Baltimore in 1953.

The sister that survives is unstreamlined 1401 at the Smithsonian.

Southern Railway streamlined 4-6-2 1380 at North Avenue Roundhouse Atlanta Georgia August 1947

Southern Railway streamlined Ps-4 4-6-2 #1380 at the North Avenue Roundhouse, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1947. Shelby F. Lowe Collection. Vanishing Vistas JT-3336.

On this page: At a glance · A 1923 Ps-4 · Why only one · Kuhler at Spencer · The Tennessean · Pool service and Atlanta · Specifications · Retirement

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Southern Railway. Reporting mark SOU
Class / Whyte	Ps-4 / 4-6-2 Pacific. USRA heavy Pacific pattern
Road number	1380. Never renumbered
Builder	American Locomotive Company, Schenectady, N.Y., 1923. Construction number 64857
First assignment	Washington Division: Crescent, Birmingham Special, Piedmont Limited
Streamlining	Spencer Shops, 1940–41. Exterior by Otto Kuhler. Only Southern steam engine so treated
Tennessean beat	Washington, D.C.–Monroe, Va., 165 miles. Inaugural May 17, 1941. N&W took the train at Monroe, seven miles north of Lynchburg
Tender after rebuild	14,000-gallon, 12-wheel tank from a 1926 sister, in place of the original 10,000-gallon tender. Skirting on the tank
Paint	Virginia green, gold, stainless trim. Same family as the unstreamlined Ps-4s
Later work	Troop trains; mail and express; occasional Birmingham Special; Washington–Spencer passenger pool after E6s 2900–2901 took the Tennessean
Atlanta photograph	North Avenue Roundhouse, August 1947. Shelby F. Lowe, Southern chief clerk, had asked for 1380 on the southeast side of the Charlotte Division
End	Retired 1952. Scrapped at Baltimore, Maryland, 1953. Not preserved

A 1923 Ps-4

Southern ordered its first heavy Pacifics because the older Ps-2s could no longer time steel cars on the Washington–Atlanta main. Alco Schenectady turned out twenty-seven in 1923–24 as class Ps-4, numbered 1366–1392, on the USRA heavy 4-6-2 diagram with Southern details. 1380 was one of that first lot: 73-inch drivers, 27-by-28-inch cylinders, 200 psi, Worthington feedwater heater, originally Baker valve gear. Tractive effort 47,535 pounds. Fourteen cars at 80 miles an hour over the Piedmont was the design brief.

As delivered the class was black with gold lettering. Fairfax Harrison saw LNER apple green in Britain and, from 1925, had the Ps-4s painted Virginia green and gold. Brass eagles, flag holders, and cylinder stars followed on many of the class. 1380 spent those years on the Washington Division in that dress, on the Crescent, the Birmingham Special, and the Piedmont Limited. Richmond-built sisters 1393–1404 came in 1926. Baldwin finished the class with 1405–1409 in 1928. Sixty-four engines on the Southern family counting CNO&TP and Alabama Great Southern. One of them would be sheathed. The rest, including 1401, kept their boilers in the open.

Why only one

In October 1940 Southern announced an all-coach diesel streamliner, the Tennessean, Washington to Memphis, replacing the heavyweight Memphis Special. Pullman-Standard was already building stainless-sheathed Cor-Ten cars. Electro-Motive E6s were on order. The route was not all Southern. Washington to Lynchburg was home rails. Lynchburg to Bristol was Norfolk & Western. Bristol to Memphis was Southern again. N&W in 1940 did not run through diesels and would not let Southern E units work that 200-mile bridge. The new cars would meet N&W Class J 4-8-4s at the Virginia cutover. Southern needed steam on its own 165 miles that looked like the train.

1380 was already at Spencer, North Carolina, for a general overhaul. Mechanical officers chose that engine. One Pacific, not a fleet. The Southerner of March 31, 1941, was diesel from the start. The Tennessean of May 17 had to be steam on the Washington end until the E6s arrived and until the N&W question changed. It never became a second streamlined Ps-4.

Kuhler at Spencer

Otto Kuhler did the exterior. He had already given Baltimore & Ohio P-7 Pacifics a bullet nose for the Royal Blue. 1380’s boiler front followed that idea: concentric headlight trim, a full-length skyline casing over the stack and appliances, a beveled air intake with stainless, curved running-board skirts, Southern medallions on the cylinder covers, polished cylinder heads, gold-tone lining on Virginia green. The original 10,000-gallon tender came off. A 14,000-gallon, twelve-wheel tank from a 1926 sister went on, with skirting along the top of the tank to match the cars. Kuhler later called the job his finest steam-locomotive rendering, and his last in that category.

Under the jacket the engine was still a 1923 Ps-4. Baker gear gave way to Walschaerts on the class in the 1930s; multiple-bearing crossheads replaced alligator guides. Worthington Type 3-B feedwater stayed. Nothing about the streamlining made her a different locomotive on the diagram. It made her the one that photographed like the train.

The Tennessean

Inaugural service was May 17, 1941. 1380 handled Washington to Monroe, Virginia—165 miles. The power change with N&W was at Monroe, seven miles north of Lynchburg. N&W Js took the stainless cars to Bristol. Southern diesels or steam finished to Memphis. The train encyclopedia, consists, and 1968 last run stay on the Tennessean page. This engine’s assignment was that short Washington–Monroe piece, and only while steam was the answer to N&W’s diesel ban.

War traffic scrambled the plan almost immediately. 1380 spent much of 1941–45 on troop trains and whatever passenger extras Spencer could cover. After E6As 2900 and 2901 were in regular Tennessean service between Washington and Spencer, the streamlined Pacific went into the steam passenger pool on that same corridor. She still looked like the streamliner. She no longer had a monopoly on it. Mail and express, and an occasional through coach-Pullman train such as the Birmingham Special, used her into the early 1950s. The casing was never removed.

Pool service and Atlanta, August 1947

By August 1947, 1380 was pool power, not a one-train engine. Shelby F. Lowe, a Southern Railway chief clerk, asked that she be run down the southeast side of the Charlotte Division. The photograph on this page is the result: North Avenue Roundhouse, Atlanta, the bullet nose and twelve-wheel tank in Virginia green, six years after Spencer finished the work. Richard E. Cox issued it as Vanishing Vistas card JT-3336 in 1986, credited to the Lowe collection. It is the engine after the Tennessean no longer needed her every day, still wearing the only steam streamlining the Southern ever applied.

Specifications

Item	1380
Builder / serial / date	Alco-Schenectady 64857, 1923
Class	Ps-4 (USRA heavy Pacific pattern)
Wheel arrangement	4-6-2
Drivers	73 in
Leading / trailing wheels	33 in / 43 in
Cylinders	Two, 27 × 28 in, outside
Boiler pressure	200 psi
Grate area	70½ sq ft
Tractive effort	47,535 lbf
Engine weight	304,000 lb
Tender weight (14,000-gal tank)	261,600 lb
Total weight	565,600 lb
Coal / water (after 1941)	16 tons / 14,000 U.S. gallons
Feedwater heater	Worthington Type 3-B
Valve gear	Baker as built; Walschaerts later, with the class
Factor of adhesion	3.79

Weights and the 14,000-gallon tender are the post-rebuild engine as streamlined. Original tender was 10,000 gallons.

Retirement

Southern dieselized passenger service faster than it retired the green Pacifics. 1380 came off in 1952, the same season 1401 made her last Danville Division trips. The streamlined engine went to Baltimore and was scrapped in 1953. No move to save her is on the record the way Claytor and Thrall saved 1401 for the Smithsonian. The only Southern steam streamliner exists as photographs, the Vanishing Vistas card, and the knowledge that Spencer did the job once.

Sources

Vanishing Vistas JT-3336 (Richard E. Cox, 1986). Shelby F. Lowe Collection photograph, North Avenue Roundhouse, Atlanta, August 1947. Alco c/n 64857; Washington Division assignments; Spencer overhaul 1940; Kuhler styling; 14,000-gallon 12-wheel tender; Washington–Monroe 165 miles; Monroe seven miles north of Lynchburg; May 1941 inaugural; E6 2900–2901; Charlotte Division request; scrapped Baltimore 1953
Southern Railway Historical Association, March 27, 2025. Only one Southern steam locomotive streamlined; Tennessean Washington–Monroe because N&W would not run Southern diesels Lynchburg–Bristol; later troop, mail, and Birmingham Special work; 14,000-gallon tender from a 1926 sister
Murray, Tom. Southern Railway. St. Paul: Voyageur Press, 2007. Company passenger context
Schafer, Mike, and Joe Welsh. Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon. St. Paul: MBI, 2003. Tennessean May 17, 1941
Johnston, Bob, and Joe Welsh. The Art of the Streamliner. Andover Junction, 2001
Carolina Conductor (Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society / related 2015 note). Kuhler design at Spencer; Virginia green retained; bullet-nose kinship with B&O P-7 Royal Blue
Live American-Rails Tennessean, Ps-4 1401, 4-6-2 type, Southern, Norfolk & Western, and N&W J-class pages as linked above

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