4449 was spared from the scrap yard and became the sole survivor of the GS-4 class, where it was donated to the city of Portland, Oregon as a static display during 1958 until being restored to operating condition in the 1970s.

The Southern Pacific (SP) GS-4s were built to a similar design of the streamlined GS-3s, although the latters have a dual-headlight casing with the mars light mounted above the headlight in front of the smokebox door.

[6] During wartime and in the first years after the war, some of the GS-4 locomotives were painted black until 1948, when they were all repainted back to their Daylight colors.

Between 1947 and 1956, most were painted black again with their side skirts removed for easier maintenance, and were reassigned to the San Jose-San Francisco Peninsula Commute service, freight service, and the occasional San Joaquin Daylight (steam locomotives remained on that train as late as 1956, which made it the last streamliner train to be pulled by steam on the Southern Pacific) until they were replaced by diesel locomotives.

It was donated to the City of Portland, Oregon in 1958 and moved to Oaks Amusement Park for static display.

[14] During its time at Oaks Park, the locomotive was vandalized and had many of its external parts stolen such as its builder's plate and whistle.

4449 is still operational and since mid-2012 resides at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in Portland along with other preserved locomotives and rolling stock.