Union Pacific Rail Road #844

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Union Pacific #844(4-8-4) steam locomotive just blew through down with the Home Plate Special after being on display at the College World Series in Omaha. The long-legged, high-stepping lady can really lay down the miles across Nebraska. In 2019, UP hopes to have Big Boy #4014 ready for his first shake down runs after restoration in the Cheyenne steam shops. 4014 had been on static display at a California theme park before the UP reacquired the engine in 2014 and towed it to Cheyenne. I hope UP uses the main transcontinental line for the shakedown runs as I have never seen an engine of that size under steam. The usual procedure has been to use the line down to Denver for the first run under steam. No matter, 4014 will come through Columbus, Nebraska one of these years, hope I am still around.

 

[doitmyself]

She's a beauty:

 

[Camprunner]

I can't wait till UP finishes restoring the Big Boy! My wife's grandfather worked for Alco Locomotive Works in Schenectady NY during the 1940's and helped build the Big Boy locomotives.

 

[CT8]

She is a beast.

 

[andyd]

Thanks for the video. DIY. Majestic. Was there a man shoveling coal into the fire box or did it have an automatic feed ?

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender. UP has a semi tanker waiting to refuel 844 at points along the right of way.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

And some of those UP employees get paid to make those public relations runs with its heritage fleet. #4014 will be the big show for UPRR PR in a bout two years.

 

[Rick in PA]

A nice window on the past.
It's easy to see why a young boy of that time would want to be a train engineer.
That's the stuff that helped us win WWII.
It's hard to believe that that was "hi tech" less than 100 years ago.

 

[c502cid]

Video starts going west out of Cheyenne up the grade towards Laramie then shows Highway 85 between Cheyenne and Denver. I'd love to see more of the climb towards Laramie. Lots of UP and Lincoln Highway history that way!

 

[blupupher]

Man those are some massive drive wheels.
Wonder what speed it was going in the video around 10:00. It looked to be moving very fast.
Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender.

So is the tender just a dummy car now, or does it carry oil as well?

 

[Panzerman]

That is awesome. Got to ride a real steam locomotive in Georgia at thier museum.
They are so cool.

 

[ArcticDriver]

Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender. UP has a semi tanker waiting to refuel 844 at points along the right of way.


My buddy is an engineer out of Cheyenne just like his father now retired.

Those two yellow cars carried fuel (Bunker B or C ?) when they were coupled to a diesel turbine unit but have been converted to carry water for their current duties with the steam locomotives.

That locomotive traveled at over 100 mph back in its heyday....in passenger service.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: blupupher

Man those are some massive drive wheels.
Wonder what speed it was going in the video around 10:00. It looked to be moving very fast.
Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender.

So is the tender just a dummy car now, or does it carry oil as well?
Water in the tender as well as oil. I wonder how far the road switcher in the video could go on the fuel used by the steamer.

 

[JHZR2]

Pretty... Love it.

Curious, is there any real reason to do this besides goodwill/rail fun?

That is, for certain runs, might it be more efficient to revert to an advanced and modern steam locomotive,mans this is just a tool to that end, or for research?

 

[blupupher]

Modern diesel/electric locomotives I am sure are more powerful (in tandem?) and efficient (please let me know if I am wrong).
But nowhere near as pretty and just amazing to look at as this monster.
The complexity of all these moving parts on a steam locomotive is staggering.
I can't imagine the power to move even one of the main wheels, much less 8 of them fully loaded.

 

[Oro_O]

That's pretty neat, thanks for sharing. It will be interesting to see it run later. I can't imagine a 4-8-8-4 like that under way.

My grandfather drove the Southern 4501 on many of its excursion runs for the Southern from the late 60s to about 1980. He had been an engineer since the 30s and by that time was one of the few engineers who was still around who had run them "in the day." As a child I got to ride along a few times. It was restored again a few years ago and is running now out of Chattanooga.

There's actually a steam engine in our town that does excursions most summer weekends. Awesome to hear that whistle in the quiet afternoon down in the valley.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: blupupher
Modern diesel/electric locomotives I am sure are more powerful (in tandem?) and efficient (please let me know if I am wrong).
But nowhere near as pretty and just amazing to look at as this monster.
The complexity of all these moving parts on a steam locomotive is staggering.
I can't imagine the power to move even one of the main wheels, much less 8 of them fully loaded.


That's where I'm curious. Steam is still used as an energy storage and transfer media elsewhere. Wonder if there is any feasibility in the economics of a modern design steam locomotive.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Originally Posted By: blupupher

Man those are some massive drive wheels.
Wonder what speed it was going in the video around 10:00. It looked to be moving very fast.
Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender.

So is the tender just a dummy car now, or does it carry oil as well? Tender carries water for boiler. I believe UP has installed some type of water softener in one of the cars to reduce boiler deposits. In power generation, we had massive cation and anion exchangers plus polishers to produce boiler condensate to reduce deposits in our steam generators(boilers).Steam at 2500 psig and 1005 F will leave deposits on turbine blading if not treated until it is almost mineral free.Stuff worked great for car batteries, steam irons.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

The steam heritage fleet is used for public relations including rail fan groups that book trips with UP. It's spelled PUBLICITY. I expect that UP will continue to budget for the heritage fleet as long as stockholders are satisfied with UP management. And UP is a very, very well managed company.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
The steam heritage fleet is used for public relations including rail fan groups that book trips with UP. It's spelled PUBLICITY. I expect that UP will continue to budget for the heritage fleet as long as stockholders are satisfied with UP management. And UP is a very, very well managed company.


Yep- U.P. steam is all about PR.


Originally Posted By: blupupher

Man those are some massive drive wheels.
Wonder what speed it was going in the video around 10:00. It looked to be moving very fast.
Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender.

So is the tender just a dummy car now, or does it carry oil as well?


Top speed is said to be well above the century mark. Currently limited to about 75mph if I recall correctly. The 800 series locos were the fastest of the bunch with their 80" tall drivers. They are down on power from the other big steam locos because of it.



Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Originally Posted By: blupupher

Man those are some massive drive wheels.
Wonder what speed it was going in the video around 10:00. It looked to be moving very fast.
Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Converted to burn oil. That is what is in the yellow cars behind the tender.

So is the tender just a dummy car now, or does it carry oil as well? Tender carries water for boiler. I believe UP has installed some type of water softener in one of the cars to reduce boiler deposits. In power generation, we had massive cation and anion exchangers plus polishers to produce boiler condensate to reduce deposits in our steam generators(boilers).Steam at 2500 psig and 1005 F will leave deposits on turbine blading if not treated until it is almost mineral free.Stuff worked great for car batteries, steam irons.


These run at either 275psig or 350psig of super heated steam.




Here's a pic of my buddy's U.P. steam memorabilia hanging in the corner of our shop (and yes, the pull chain does operate a whistle mounted outside):