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Topic: Union Pacific 4014 Returns to the Rails!
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 09, 2019 08:37 AM
That's nice Maurice,
I've always loved British trains, you can tell that from my film collection.
The magnitude of what Union Pacific has done here is something like this: I belong to two associations that are restoring narrow gauge lines up in Maine: nice, small trains. UP #4014 weighs in more than 20 times what the Maine engines do!
It takes the facilities of a major mainline railroad to pull this off. A bunch of volunteers can't even budge a boiler that itself weighs several hundred tons (Never mind raising several million dollars...)
What's unique is the will to do it at all. Most railroads just want to stick to moving freight as efficiently as possible and things like this are no better than a distraction.
The punch line here is UP has already restored one of the slightly smaller 4-6-6-4 Challenger class engines, and someday these two giants will operate together.
The other steam engine in the video is Union Pacific 844. She's special for being the only steam locomotive in the US to never be officially retired. She was fairly new when UP completed changing to diesel power, but instead of striking her from the roster they just transferred her to excursion service.
[ May 09, 2019, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: Steve Klare ]
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 10, 2019 05:57 AM
True: -one group I'm involved in has restored a 2 mile stretch of one of the Maine narrow gauges lines including a pair of hundred+ year old steam locomotives, about ten vintage cars, two stations, a shop complex, turntable and lately a roundhouse. Right now they are also fabricating parts to build a brand new engine, and I think they'll pull it off too.
-but when you are restoring a 500 ton machine capable of pulling a mile long train at 60 MPH, it really helps to start out with a multi acre locomotive shop, full time skilled staff and several thousand miles of class one standard gauge track.
I read recently that there are more vintage steam locomotives standing around even today than there are possibilities of ever getting them restored: it's tough business. There's a group here that is restoring a 1920s 4-6-0 that had to donate 20 years of post-restoration operation to a railroad museum in Pennsylvania. Even if they managed to solve the money and skills problems the bottom line is the Long Island Railroad never budged an inch on allowing a 90 year old locomotive out on their trackage, even one of their own.
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted May 10, 2019 08:49 AM
Yes, the sad fact is that the idea of bringing steam back to the rails is a very romantic idea that has very practical limits.
You still have to comply with modern transportation, environmental and other laws, you need liability and property insurance, security, public relations, marketing and all the other red tape.
-just to start, you dig into an 80 year old boiler you have an immense asbestos abatement ahead of you.
At the end of the day, even the really cool projects need to pay their bills as they show up. I know at least one steam locomotive that was scrapped recently because the owner couldn't pay the rent where it was stored.
This is why smaller engines and narrow gauge lines do well in museums: same problems, but exponentially smaller.
No wonder people like model trains: You turn off the transformer, turn out the lights, close the door and go upstairs to watch the tube.
-no worries!
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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