model:

builder:

built:

builder number:

cost when built:

prime mover:

horsepower:

operating weight:

length:

max. speed:

GP7

GM Electro-Motive Division

April 1953

18168

$170,833.00

567B - 16 cylinder

1500

246,800 lbs.

56 ft. 2 in.

65 MPH

SN 712 was built as a Western Pacific engine in 1953 and served first as mainline power, then in local service when newer locomotives arrived.  In July, 1971, it and sister engine 711 were transferred to the Sacramento Northern, replacing two older, streamlined diesel locomotives.  While now owned by the SN, the 712 continued to frequently roam onto WP trains.  On the SN, the 712 initially was seen most often on the road's trains from Sacramento to the town of Pittsburg, CA.  These trains, referred to as the SN Detour, used trackage rights on other railroads to serve a large steel mill in Pittsburg and bypass the SN's former mainline from Sacramento to Pittsburg, severed when its unique carferry service was abandoned.

Later, the 712 migrated up to Marysville and Chico, working the SN line between these two cities and again using trackage rights on another railroad, the Southern Pacific, to make part of the trip.  The SN's own line had been partly abandoned in the 1960's when the Oroville Dam project was completed and a reservoir swallowed the former mainline.

After the WP-UP merger, the 712 was donated to the Bay Area Electric Railway Association and displayed at their museum at Rio Vista Junction.  In 2003, the 712 came to the FRRS as part of a trade of equipment between the organizations.