Was reading the Daily Casper Star Tribune online and they published a great story on the 844 Frontier Days special.
From Todays Casper Star Tribune
Engineer team keeps last UP steam engine chugging
By KAREN COTTON
The Associated Press
CHEYENNE – Union Pacific engineer Lynn Nystrom sat in the black vinyl engineer’s seat of steam engine No. 844.
Nystrom sported overalls that an engineer might have worn in 1944, the year the steam engine was delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad.
Nystrom wore a blue T-shirt beneath his overalls, and his head was crowned by a ball cap with “Steam Crew No. 844” stitched on it in black.
Around him a menagerie of gauges, levers and red knobs stuck out of the back head of the boiler that the cab wrapped around.
The only modern thing inside of No. 844’s cab was a fairly new communications radio and a cup holder to the right of Nystrom’s seat that held a Gatorade bottle.
Nystrom is one of a dozen people who work with the historic steam locomotive program for Union Pacific.
The sleek black locomotive rested in the Union Pacific steam shop as its engine was having final touches done to it in preparation for two excursions during Cheyenne Frontier Days.
The first is the sold-out Cheyenne Frontier Days Denver Post Train excursion on July 19. The second is the Cheyenne Depot Train Excursion on July 20 to Denver. There are still tickets left, although seating is limited.
A working steam engine locom