Thought I would share this, I have been following this restoration since the beginning, quite an accomplishment to see this happen! As a Yuge Steam Fan, this has been the Holy Grail of Steam power, and i'm super excited to see her running! Wow! Enjoy!
This thing is frickin Y-U-G-E! I got to see a few of them on display, it's awe inspiring to see one up close, cant wait to see her Roar by on the rails and feel the ground shake as she flys by, the whole time that marvelous steam whistle blaring! Brings a tear to the eye! Only in America could man endeavor to build a monster like this, and almost 80 years later, she is back on the rails!
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Isn't that the locomotive they had sitting in a park in Cheyenne?? Have seen it many times and thought it was a shame not to have it rolling..
The last of the steam locomotives were able to solve most of their problems, the use of automatic stokers and prepared coal allowed a small crew to operate them efficiently, and many were converted to oil as well, the problem was always water, only used once, and the inability to moderate the steam. It worked fine while running at a near constant load, but if you have a hot fire to produce the steam you need, the steam production will continue even if you don't need it and you will have to vent it to keep the pressure down to a safe level. If you lower the fire to save water, then when you wish to start, there will be a lag until the fire builds up enough heat to produce enough steam to handle the load. The net said that it used 150 or so gal of water per mile, and under extreme load could use as much as 450 or more. As a kid the local railroad ran steam and a good engineer and fireman could keep the smoke down to near 0, much of what came out of the smoke stack was steam, which was used to pull the air through the fire box. Train was held up by a track washout once and the fire went out. They brought in a gas powered fan and put it one the smoke stack and ran it to create a draft to get air to the firebox until the steam was built up. Funny what you remember. The engineer used to stop and pick us up and we would ride the 3 miles to town and in the fall we would hunt pheasants from an empty flat car. Times have changed. Those were hand fed small locomotives. Really nice to see it run again and as always the critical part is getting the boiler certified as they are potentially large bombs waiting to go off. Good catch, that shot of it pulling the cars and the switch diesel made my day, thank you
The American Locomotive Company 4000-class 4-8-8-4 locomotive, popularly named Big Boy, is an articulated steam locomotive manufactured between 1941 and 1944 and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in revenue service until 1959. Wikipedia Configuration: 4-8-8-4 Builder: American Locomotive Company Total produced: 25 Build date: 1941 (20), 1944 (5) Union Pacific Big Boy - Wikipedia Eight remain - one has been restored In my World of the Chernyi series, Steam locos are used for the smaller freight runs and PAX service
HEARD one of these back in the 50's... I was about 8 or 9 maybe... ? it was on a farewell tour IIRC... came through our area... WOW! LOUD! and you could fell the vibration in the ground. was at least a mile away when it came through... it literally... ROARED! ran in the house and asked my Mom about it... she told me what it was and what it was doing... those old songs about trains made a lot more sense after that...
I'm fortunate in that I live about 7 hours south of the Cheyenne steam shop, and have been there to visit and look around several times, including when they pulled 4014 up out of Kali and put her into the restoration shop! Even better, our current situation puts us in OryGun, home of 3 restored and working Steam Locomotives, Including the famed DayLight Express #4449 which I have ridden several times! My dad and I have chased the Challenger on a number of occasions and Ol' 4449 has long been a part of our family adventures!
Love Wyoming, really enjoy visits to Cody and areas between there and Yellowstone national park, GREAT flying, biter cold winters! Ultimately ended up in the High Mountains of Colorado!
how is the pollen there heard tell is pretty good place to live for folks with allergies? but kinda depends on location?
Yep, that it does. No problems in the desert (Rock Springs area) unless the sage was blooming. North of Sweetwater County, there's stuff in the air most of the year, not so much in winter, of course, unless snow counts.
Up north is where it's at, but your still going to get some pollen, it's all ranch lands and the grass pollen can get pretty nasty!
When I was s little kid we rode trains from LA to Chicago twice to see relatives. 1955 1956 . Down our street there were tracks often used so we were well accustomed to the sound .I never saw a steam engine till we went toe Knots Berry farm , and Disney Land . really fascinating engines. Dad had done some horse trading and got a Stanley steamer engine ,but he hadn't the knowledge to make it work so eventually he traded it off really bumed me out too . A lot of stuff runs on steam including nuclear energy and ships Largely because the technology has grown up around it with ceramics and better metals. In later years I worked on steam turbines and valves for ships. quite an education and fun really. The only reason cars are not powered with steam is the start up times , you can't just hop in and take off. But that can change too.
We lived near the rock island track when I was a early kid. They had a train called the doodle bug that would stop and pick my mother and I up and carry us south two miles to Wyatt were my grandparents lived. We would catch the doddlebug back home that evening before dark. Boy the good old days are gone forever.
Not gone up here in Alaska, YET... the Alaska Railroad does WhistleStops all along it's Routes on some specific Trains... This can be seen on the Alaska Railroading Show on Discovery Channel...
