Click on Photo above for Photos of WP 512

Western Pacific #512             

Alco S-1 switching locomotive

Built 1941  

Built by:                   

American Locomotive Co.

Schenectady, New York                

   WESTERN PACIFIC #512 QUICK FACTS:

Actually, WP 512 is not an actual Western Pacific Locomotive. WP 512 was built for the United States Army Lone Star Defense Depot, and was made available after retirement through the Government Surplus Program. 

Early in the museums history, the Feather River Rail Society desired an operating ALCO "S" series switcher, and thus purchased the 512, and then painted into the paint scheme representative of the first ALCO S1s on the Western Pacific.  WP's ALCO S-1's were numbered 501-511, so the FRRS logically numbered their new locomotive "512" following the WP's numbering scheme as that would have been the next available number on WP's roster.

Western Pacific #512 is exx Lone Star Defense #100, ex U.S. Army 7372.

The year 1941 also brought us:

January 6 - The keel of the USS Missouri (BB-63) is laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn.

February 4 - World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

February 23 - Glenn T. Seaborg isolates and discovers plutonium.

March 1 - W47NV begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first FM radio station.

May 1 - The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills.

May 1 - Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.

May 1 - The first Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps go on sale in the United States, to help fund the greatly increased production of military equipment.

May 12 - Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.

August 1 - The first Jeep is produced.

September 27 - The first Liberty Ship, the SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore, Maryland.

October 23 - Walt Disney's feature-length cartoon Dumbo is released.

October 31 - After 14 years of work, drilling is completed on Mount Rushmore.

November 26 - U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the 4th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States (this partly reverses a 1939 action by Roosevelt that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November).

December 7, (December 8, Japan standard time) - The Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the United States into World War II.

December 8 - World War II: The United States officially declares war on Japan.