UP steam locomotive in SW Illinois

[higgins]

I probably should have posted this a couple of days ago, but did anyone go to check out the Union Pacific steam locomotive that went through SW Illinois Saturday? My son and I (he's the railfan) went to Gorham, ILL for its servicing stop there and got to see it at a couple of other brief stops before it crossed the bridge to Cape Girardeau (we just missed seeing it cross the bridge). If the sight and sounds of a real mainline steam locomotive underway doesn't make the hair on your neck stand up, you cannot claim to have a sense of nostalgia.

[fatnhappy]

I thought UP was a term reserved for the Upper Penninsula. Learn something new every day.

[Maven]

Lots of pics of UP #844 (and other steam locomotives) @ Trainorders.com: http://www.trainorders.com/

[Charlie Two Tracks]

We had a couple of steam engines come through our town a couple of years ago. Very impressive, very noisy and very smokey! They were great to look at.

[462]

My paternal grandfather worked in the round house, for the Northern Pacific Railroad, in Auburn, Washington. I don't know what his job entailed, but there's a picture of him standing next to a steam locomotive, holding one of those large squirt-can oilers.

[Buckshot]

...............They held a nation of young men and visionaries in thrall, for better then a century and a half. They were the largest moving man made objects on the face of the land, and they moved acrosst it with busnesslike magistry, power, and speed. To me, if they don't stir something deep inside you, I'd be sorry to say that you proabbly have no soul

.......................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

Steam locomotives are just plain cool!

[ammohead]

On Memorial weekend all it did was snow. I was in Ely NV with my youngest son, his wife and my grandson 4. We went to the train museum and they were firing up the northern nevada rr steam locomotives for rides. We were just looking, not riding. The engineer leaned out the window of the cab and I asked if it was nice an warm up there. "Come on up" he says. I was up that ladder in a flash. WAY COOL! I sat out of the way in the brakemans seat and gabbed with the fireman and engineer for about 10 minutes while they were firing up and building steam for the ride.

ammohead

[Dframe]

I love the old steamers. The town I grew up in had a huge railyard and we used to see them frequently. Something about the sight, sound, and smell of them.

[scrapcan]

844 spends a lot of time in our town, Cheyenne Wyoming. The Cheyenne roundhouse is the home of the UPRR steam program

http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/releases/heritage_and_steam/2007/0719_frontier.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_29LvbVbJDQ

Here are a couple others that are in storage here that are nto well known

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/upstorage.shtml


As Buckshot says if they don't stir something in a person, that pwerson needs to get a bit closer. It is fascinating to say the least. I spent alot of time as a youth watching some of these get rebuilt and a few put to bed. My neighbor when I was little kid put one into it's final resting spot in park here in town. It was a very sad day for him. Engine 4-0-0-4 on display
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/bigboy/

[mold maker]

My Great Grandad was a bridge foreman for CN&NW, now Norfolk Southern. He and a crew went to a downed bridge and cut local timber to rebuild it. They worked till the bridge was finished, and tracks connected.
Granddad had the biggest and roughest hands I had ever seen. He told me that it didn't ever rain on the RR, while they were working. If it did they would have built a roof over it. What he meant was they didn't let rain or snow stop them.
Every school day, I ran the 2 blocks to the tracks, to see the Green with Yellow and Chrome engine pass, at 3:08.
That ear splitting whistle, steam, smoke, and cinders, were magic, and still are. I still have several coins flattened by that train, back in the 50s.
On it's last run, the last steam train (replaced by a diesel engine) was all polished up, and had flags and streamers all over. It stopped briefly at the station for a ceremony with all the local dignitaries on hand. I know the diesel engines are more efficient and better for the environment, but I sure miss, what is now only, a childhood memory.

[higgins]

Buckshot did a better job than I did of saying what I was trying to convey about the emotions stirred by a steam locomotive. They are impressive even sitting still because even then they're breathing, dripping water, releasing steam, and clanging. Years ago when Norfolk Southern ran steam excursions, and my son and I were both a lot younger, we got to ride behind two steam locomotives. One was the maroon stereamlined one that I believe was a Norfolk & Western passenger locomotive; the other was a green Southern . We always stood in the vestibule between cars most of the trips (safety goggles required there). To be a couple or three cars back and watch one take a curve at speed with the wheels churning and the drive rods working, blowing smoke and cinders, is doubly "stirring". I'm glad my son had the opportunity to experience a piece of Americana when he was a youngster that very few men his age have experienced.

[Maven]

higgins, You probably rode behind N & W #611 and SR 4501. The former is now in the N & W museum in Roanoke, but I don't know about the latter.

[475BH]

Here's a video of a Challenger doing what it always did best-> http://youtu.be/XhgHrDbN4EU
Salllllllute!

[9.3X62AL]

I can't recall the exact quote, but I once read or heard someone say that the steam engine was the closest blending of mechanical apparatus to living organism that man has ever created.

I firmly believe that. I'm a railfan, and love riding any passenger train. I've had the privilege of seeing the old Santa Fe #3751 run after being re-activated from display in San Bernardino's Viaduct Park, and as others have said--they make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Even a display locomotive along the highway prompts a stop when I travel.

[chuckbuster]

I rode the Narrow gage from Durango to Silverton Colorado once

[ammohead]

I just looked at the little video that I took while in the cab. It was the fireman's seat that I sat in. A $95.00 ride in that cab will take place this summer. I can't wait.

ammohead

[bowfin]

I just saw a string of the old Union Pacific passenger cars westbound on the rail by Columbus Nebraska. One was an "observation car" with upper level that has a plexiglas top:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11581147@N06/5104049706/

(The one in the link has the shades pulled.)

I was lucky enough to ride from Columbus, Nebraska to Milton Junction, Wisconsin on a Union Pacific passenger train in 1964. Mom woke us kids up at 5:00 A.M. to watch us cross the Mississippi River. We could see both the engine and caboose because the bridge had a curve.

We have between 80-110 trains pass through town each day, cutting the town in half. If that isn't bad enough, the yard workers insist on switching cars on the tracks downtown instead of the yard a half mile East.

The standing joke is that U.P.R.R. stands for "Usually Parked Rail Road".:D

[felix]

I liked your pictures, Bowfin. I lived in STL for 10 years. That railroad line through Kirkwood was created by the Wabash RR as a westward extension from downtown. The MKT (Katy) RR was not in STL at the time that I know of, but was in KCMO. The SantaFe started WEST in KCKS. ... felix

[Dale53]

I grew up next to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad yard. There was even a "Round House" where they worked on the engines complete with it's turn table. I got used to hearing the train whistle as it rushed by my neighborhood at all hours of the day or night. Baldwin, Lima, Hamilton built engines in my home town of Hamilton, Ohio.

The mothers all hung out their laundry to dry and oftentimes had to wash them twice if the train discharged soot all over them the first time (this was with a wringer/washing machine, not an automatic washer).

We kids played on the railroad and many a time I was run off by a HUGE railroad detective swinging the belt on the end of his night stick. We even played tag on moving trains (I would have "killed" any kid of mine caught doing that a generation later:veryconfu). Walking to school everyday I had to cross the railroad. Often the crossing would be blocked by the train and we would hop the train to avoid a sometimes lengthy wait. We would often hop a freight to ride to town when I was but a lad. We were probably the worst nightmare that the train men faced (kids hopping a freight). They didn't take a kindly view to that dubious activity. Thinking back, I can only shake my head...

I rode the Cincinnatian (a gorgeous streamliner) on the first leg on my trip to Ft. Lee, Va and active duty in the US Army. You simply cannot believe the sophistication and smoothness of that massive engine and how quickly it picked up speed (it was allowed speeds of over 90 mph). In those days the rails were super maintained and you NEVER saw the sorry state of the rails that we see today.

Dale53

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I grew up 150 yards from the B&O line in St. Joseph Michigan. Our house was on the back alley & nothing between us & the tracks but that open space & beach sand. One day I was sitting in the sand digging another hole when I saw one of many special trains to pass over the next three days. Headed south to Gary, Indiana were the new diesels pulling 10-15 steam road engines or switchers to get broken up. I remember watching in facination.. about every 2 hours another stream of iron headed south.
While I was in Germany the Big steam locomotives were used to haul our M60A1 tanks to Graf or Baumholder for tank gunnery as the deisels just could not haul the weight over the passes. Several of those engines I saw carried the caliber.50 scars from being straffed during WW2. They were some fine pieces of machinery & coal fired power... but going through a long tunnel on an uphill grade will get your attention if someone has left the window open.
Mike in Peru

[Wayne Smith]

[QUOTE=mold maker;1293888]
Granddad had the biggest and roughest hands I had ever seen. He told me that it didn't ever rain on the RR, while they were working. If it did they would have built a roof over it. What he meant was they didn't let rain or snow stop them.
/QUOTE]

A bit of trivia - Across the Serria the UP literally did build roofs over miles and miles of track - to keep the snow off the track. Coal fired steamers and wooden roofs, and they made it work.

[NoDakJak]

You aren't kiddinng about that soke gettig your attention. In the summer of 1955 I turned 16 and a few days later a friend and myself hopped a freight in southern Iowa and for the next several months we lived the life of a Hobo. Heading west out of Saint Paul everything went well until some where in western Montana they switched to steam to get ovet the Rockies. We were riding on a flat car at that time and I thought that I was going to suffacate going through a couple tunnels. That is certainly one experience that I don't want to replicate.
During the late fourties and early fifties I loved to stay at my grandparents house in West Des Moines. They lived atop the river bluffs and switch yards were below. They still used steam for switch engines and they ran 24 hours a day. I seldom noticed them during the day but when I went to bed I could hear their music until I fell asleep.
A lifetime ambition was to ride the Durango to Silverton narrow gauge and I finally got to fulfill that wish several years ago. Fantastic!!! I hope to repeat that within the next few years.
Neil

[PatMarlin]

This is an awesome thread. Thanks for the stories everyone ...:drinks:

[Matt_G]

You guys need to check out Al Krug's story about getting to drive the SP&S 700.
Steam! (http://krugtales.50megs.com/rrpictale/steam700/steam700a.htm)

He has a bunch more stories you can get to from his home page here (http://krugtales.50megs.com/rrpictale/rrpictale.htm).
Sadly he hasn't added to them in quite a while, (maybe he retired...) but this will keep you busy reading for a while. :mrgreen:

[TCLouis]

Now that you rode Durango to Silverton, it is time to go from Antonito to Chama on the Cumbres and Toltec. Or you can go from Chama to Antonito either way is an all day trip.

lots of video on Youtube.

Narrow gauge, but the cinders and rock of the car carry one back to a by gone era.

Dang they need a buffalo excursion run with Rolling blocks and Sharps and Steel Buffalo along the tracks in the flat ground out of Antonito . . . . BOOLITS only of course!

[JRMTactical]

Took my 2 little boys to Texas State Railroad in Palestine, TX back last August. We took the steam excursion...if you EVER get the chance GO! You'll never meet any friendlier people and have a better time! The local SASS guys and gals "Rob" the train for charity and have a shootout at Maydelle! NOTHING BETTER! I want to go on the Silverton run with the D&RG with my boys one year.

[Buckshot]

.............While in the Navy, in 1971 we spent a few days tied up in Mombosa, Kenya. I'd signed up for a camera Safari in the T'savu Game Preserve. One the bus trip there the highway paralleled a RR mainline for some distance and we paced a freight train pulled by a Garret Steam locomotive. Similar to our Articulated locomotives, ie: 4-8-8-2 or such, the Garret carries the boiler suspended BETWEEN the 2 seperate sets of drivers. Very interesting to watch in operation.

Privious to that we'd stopped in Diego Suarez on the northern tip of the island of Madagascar. We ended up not getting liberty due to student unrest and possible rioting. However the railroad there on the docks was of 2' guage. The little locomotives were all coal fired saddle tank 0-4-0's. You could have just about set one in the back of a full sized pickup bed. All the rail cars were typical 2 axle type. The 2 man train crew was pretty much like everyone else working around the docks, boots, no socks, cutoff pants, flaping open short sleeve shirt, gloves and a bandana.

.................Buckshot

[NoDakJak]

A couple years ago I was watching a steam railroad program and got to see the Garret Locomotives at work in South Africa. Odd looking beasts but they sure seemed to work well.
During the late thirties and early forties my Dad worked for Pen-Dixie Cement plant in West Des Moines. The company had a small train that ran about 35 miles to the limestone quarries at Earlham, Iowa. One day the Fireman wasn't available and they asked my Dad to fill in for him as they knew he had extensive experience with steam powered tractors. He leaped at the chance! It turned out to be an old handfired engine and he says he never worked harder in his life. It was upgrade all the way to the quarry and kept him busy. He thought that he would have an easier time coming back downgrade but it was loaded heavy and worked him even harder. He refused to volunteer for that job again. Neil

[felix]

The Challenger (wrong...it was engine 844) was in Fort Smith (actually Van Buren) yesterday, I was told. No newspaper or TV warning yesterday or the day before. The guy told me that was so because of the 844's scheduling was messed up due to flooding in Kansas. Who knows. The Challenger was here a few years ago for a day or so. ... felix