I saw UPs 844 on TV for the first time last night [wow] That machine is awesome. After watching it you can understand why the railroads switched to diesels. Steam is maintenance intensive, fuel, and crew. The show could have been better, (more details) but overall it gave some insight into the operation of the prototype.
We have a big boy in the St, Louis museum of transport, standing along side is mind boggling. You don’t get the same effect from a 1/87 model.
Has anyone seen UPs 844 in action?
No but I’ve seen Milwaukee 261 (a similarly sized 4-8-4) and UP 3985 4-6-6-4. Seeing the articulated starting a train on a very cool fall day with lots of steam was pretty neat. I suspect a lot of “diesel only” model railroaders get second thoughts when seeing something like that !!
p.s. later this summer SP 4449 “Daylight” is going to be here, that should be pretty fun too…[:)]
844 and 4449 were honored guests at the California Railroad Museum’s Railfair 91 - and I was living just outside Sacramento at the time.[:P]
There were several other locos in steam at that event, including a (dare I say) cute little 0-4-0T with a huge steam winch on the pilot deck.[8D]
On permanent display inside the museum building - a Southern Pacific 4-8-8-2 cab-forward, not exactly a small piece of machinery.[^]
As for the TV program (which I caught just before midnight last night) - I sure wish that guy would pipe down and let the camera troop shoot more of the locomotive and (a lot) less of his ugly mug![|(]
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where a 2-8-2 was big power)
Oooooooooh come oooon. Mind boggling? There’s nothing mind boggling about having to look up to see the top of driver wheels, or a smoke box big enough to fit my Cavalier in, or a cylinder wide enough to crawl into, or a piece of machinery weighting 1 000 000 pounds.
It’s not mind boggling. It’s mind blowing [swg] Next time you try to crawl up and around it more. The size of the pivot pin, holy chimi-changas. You know, now that I think about it, just the engine itself was bigger than the house I grew up in. [D)] See, I told you it was mind blowing.
Yes I’ve seen UP844 in action, the last time just a couple of weeks ago east of . Initially I set out to get pix along the east of Portola. I was running late and questionable if I could get the pix. Thinking of Robson’s law of random chance, I went to Chilcoot instead. There is a grade crossing with a single pair of cross bucks; or there was. When I arrived a construction crew was installing crossing gates. I did get one shot as 844 ran by. Disappointed I headed east to a steel trestle in the with a ranch house near the east end. The train was traveling at a good clip and I clicked the photo as the high steeping 844 crossed the bridge. Checking the photo the locomotive was behind the ranch house; d#@$ digital cameras. My last chance was up a dirt road east of Doyle. 844 was right behind me. I slammed on the brakes; through it into park, grabbed the camera, point and shot. Checking the photograph I grinned as the UP844 headed into
I have seen UP 844 and UP 3985 Challenger at different times. They are amazing machines and I love watching them operate. I have been to the St. Louis Museum of Transportation and would like to visit there again.