I know that Union Pacific has the ONLY remaining 2-10-2 class as part of their steam fleet. She is the well known 5511. She even appeared in the last of the giants video. My thought is this… Why can,t she run in the steam program?.. From what I have heard is this… Her boiler is in awesome shape. If she was put in the shop she could be running in months. I have heard that a rod or cylinder was bad. The rod was repatched and welded for repair. The tender is too short. My question is this… If so. Can you cut the frame and part of the tender and lengthen them to were you can make her operational? But also giving the opportunity to make her fuel tank or coal bunker and water tank longer giveing her the opportunity to run longer and still being able to get a purpose?.. I thought it,s a smart idea. Now I don’t,t know if those are the issues for sure. I may be wrong.
But to me… If the tender is the ONLY issue keeping her from running… Why not give it a shot to try to see if its, even possible to lengthen it?
As mentioned, a 2-10-2 was never designed for the speeds that characterize the modern U.P. I would vote against lengthening the tender, even if it were feasible. I just have an aversion to modifications of the appearance of historical engines. They modified the tender of C&O 614 for the experimental runs several years ago, with unfortunate results from an aesthetic standpoint. Interestingly, another similar tender was said to exist at the time, so an alternative approach would have been possible.
That said, it sure would be interesting to see an engine with Young valve gear in operation.
What good reaason does UP have to run the 2-10-2? What good reason does UP have to run any steam at all, for that matter?
The answer for both is: They don’t.
UP would do just as good as a businuess without the steam program as with. We should be happy they operate what they can when they can; and even though they are bringing back a big boy, we have to remember their shops are only so big, and their pockets only so deep.
UP can only run so much before it becomes too much of an expense. Business before pleasure.
Also, that 2-10-2 is the only surviving wheel arangement from the UP, operation would mean destruction of some of that histrical fabric, after all, it’s only original once. Lets keep it that way.
At least the 5511 is preserved, I don’t ask anymore of UP than to keep it that way.
UP 5511 2-10-2 was a drag freight engine from the era when just keeping the train moving over the line was the issue. UP 5511 was one of many drag freight engines kept on for “pusher service” getting freight over Sherman Hill.
Unfortunately, the modern steam excursion business is about moving at passenger speeds in such a manor as is contemporary to todays diesel passenger power.
UP 5511 is unique, she is a historical class act so typical to Union Pacific of the 1920’s. She belongs to "the days before Northerns, the days before Challengers, the days before Big Boy. When the only UP power was 4-12-2 and 2-10-2 and 2-8-2. When Union Pacific passenger power was 4-8-2 and 4-6-2!
She is an unqualified movie actor from an age of generic freight trains that went “Everywhere West!” I see UP 5511 and I see the OLD WEST of which Union Pacific has a substancial historical part! UP 5511 is part of American railroad history of which there are very few remaining actors.
No other 2-10-2 Santa Fe’s, only one 4-12-2 Union Pacific, no 4-8-2 Mountains, no 4-6-2 Pacifics and just a couple of old 2-8-2 Mikes. Wow!
A close look at UP 5511 reveals that the feed water heater was removed at some point and that after her movie appearance she was to be scrapped and her piston rods were cut with a cutting torch. Some unknown hero just never ordered her sent her off to the dead line.
The small four wheel tender makes her out to be just “that much more grunt” than a large freight Mikado 2-8-2. The engines that moved the freight in the days of Woodie Guthrie.
My personal story of UP 5511 comes about in the 1960’s when I was traveling west with my parents in a 1966 Airstream trailer pulled by a 1966 Chrysler New Yorker. I had a copy of Ron Ziel’s book Twilight of Steam. When mom and d
A real beauty from the distant past days of real “He-man” railroading! Am I right in thinking there is only one other american drag-freight 2-10-2* in existance? The ex-SP engine at the Illinois Railway Museum. That one looked pretty rough when I saw her maybe 8 years ago.
Dr d, twilight of steam, an excellent book. Got my original copy still. Often open it for old time sake. The scrap yard scenes are still very distrubing.
You’ll be happy to know that there are at least 6 North American 2-10-2’s in existence: 1. AT&SF 940, Bartlesville, OK; 2. DM&N 502, Museum of Transport, St. Louis; 3. DM&IR 506, National Ry. Museum, Green Bay; 4. T&NO 975, Illinois Ry. Museum, Union, IL; 5. T&NO 982, Houston, TX; 6. UP 5511 (an LA&SL number), Cheyenne, WY.
Since 5511 has an LA&SL number, I have often thought that it might be better for her to be returned to California in the Pomona collection, and U.P. 4-12-2 no. 9000 returned to Cheyenne, which was her operating territory. I don’t know how much the 5511 actually was actually used on the LA&SL.
You also lamented the lack of a preserved U.P. 4-6-2. Fortunately, two OR&N Pacifics survive: 3206, reported to be in Spokane, and 3203 in Portland.
“Business before pleasure?” If life were only about business, it wouldn’t be worth living. There’s no foolproof way to calculate the effect of an exciting public relations program on revenue, but heritage and history have value.
BLI produced a brass hybrid model of a UP 2-10-2 a few years ago & you may be able to find one if you look hard enough. I think it had Walschaerts’ valve gear. No. 5511 has Young valve gear. Way back in the Dark Ages, an importer called Balboa had a Japanese brass version. There may have been other brass versions. If you have access to The Brown Book, that should have the info (I’ve misplaced my copy).
Evening, UP 5511 has been one of my favorite locomotive for many years. I share the dream of restoring her as do many others. But realistically she is a poor candidate for mainline usage and would be too large for a tourist railroad.
UP 5511 would be like the UP 9000, Just to big and to slow for operation at todays speeds. I have a source that says the UP 5511 is missing most of it’s cab interior as the gauges and such were offered to UP employees at one time.
Now, Regarding the short tender. I would love to see the ex-C&O tender langishing in the CSX Baltimore yard paired up with the UP 5511 after being Union Pacificized. This is the tender, http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27969
The C&O tender is indeed an orphan, as there is no existing C&O loco that would have used that type of tank. Too bad the last C&O Mike was cut up in the 1960’s. But it’s not a U.P. tender either, so it wouldn’t look right behind 5511. In any case, isn’t 5511 an oil burner?
There is precedence for C&O tenders and UP 2-10-2’s, UP salvage and reassigned several that were orginally assigned to their ex-C&O war babies this dramatic improvement contributed to longer operating ranges. 5511 does burn oil.
