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Union Pacific No. 844 Rolling through town.

Szczerba

Szczerba

I wanna be Dave
Joined
Oct 4, 2007
Messages
8,787
Location
Castle Rock, WA
I was headed out to a comp this morning and got down to the RR crossing and see a crowd of people. Stopped and ask what was going on.
The Union Pacific no. 844 was blowin' through.
Waited about 1 minute and then heard the beast coming. I don't know how fast it was going but it was only at the crossing for like 7 seconds!
I would have lost on a quick draw cell phone camera duel. I was late getting it out and only got one crappy picture.

Anyways, this thing was badass. Nothing like a 8:00am adrenaline rush!

Here is it's route schedule.
http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/releases/heritage_and_steam/2010/0315_valley-eagle.shtml
And a cool vid from youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdhZ1oWi5h0&feature=related
 

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It's always cool to see history alive and well in person"thumbsup"
Thanks for sharing the pic!

I saw it last year in Northern California
3467700418_7db437e383.jpg
 
I know they're woefully inefficient, maintenance-intensive and obsolete, but damn there's nothing like a steam loco "thumbsup"
 
Shane_744 said:
Yeah, I remember seeing your pictures and video, I believe. I didn't even know it was in the area! I got lucky.
Click to expand...
My dad works at a tourist railroad/museum in northern California (with a few steam engines of their own), so he usually gives me a heads up when these things are running....
I'm a member too, but I don't get down there to volunteer too much being 1300 miles away:ror:
 
microgoat said:
I know they're woefully inefficient, maintenance-intensive and obsolete, but damn there's nothing like a steam loco "thumbsup"
Click to expand...

When Dad started at C&NW back in the 60's, the "old timers" would talk of the Locomotives that ran the 400 mile route. This things had 7ft tall drivers and could make the 400 mile run in 400 minutes...while slowing down for road grade crossings and stopping for maintenence and to pick up passengers"thumbsup"
 
i rode in the cab from spring texas for the rest of the day. great ride and gotta love having a VP of UP for a uncle. got to help the engineer with everything. great experience.
 
Wow. This train was awesome. Bet that ride was cool. Video or pictures?

I got really lucky that morning. Didn't even know it was going through town. That picture is actually 6 miles from the nearest town.

It's an engineering marvel.
 
Duuuuuuuude said:
That is pretty awesome. I didn't realize they were that damn big.
Click to expand...

Yup, and the UP had bigger for hauling coal through the mountains!

Union Pacific 3985, Wheaton Illinois, 2002 - YouTube

I live about a mile from where they had this thing in West Chicago at the time that video was shot. I didn't know it was in town until the whistle woke me up one morning with that rather distinctive whistle:ror:
 
I live here in Portland and we are lucky to have the SP #4449 and SP&S #700 in town. The Oregon Railroad Historical Foundation runs the locomotives on our railroad as a fundraiser every Christmas. I've ridden in the cab of the 4449 and actually run the 700. Pretty dang cool. Alot bigger, hotter, and noisier than the switch engines I run every day.

A link to the ORHF website.

Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation

This is a link to the Oregon Pacific Railroad website for our little family railroad. Lots of interesting reading if you are into railroads.

Oregon Pacific Railroad Homepage

Enjoy!
 
If you ever find yourself in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the UP has a huge freight yard there with a 'Challenger' class loco and a 'Big-Boy' that you can see from the side of the road. There is also a Challenger class loco on a static display. You have to just stare at it for an hour to absorb how freeking' huge these machines are. I live in Baltimore, at the B&O museum there's an 'Allegheny' class loco that is actually bigger than the Big Boy. I can only imagine that these machines actually 'come to life' when they were fully steamed up and moving.
 
War Pig said:
I live here in Portland and we are lucky to have the SP #4449 and SP&S #700 in town. The Oregon Railroad Historical Foundation runs the locomotives on our railroad as a fundraiser every Christmas. I've ridden in the cab of the 4449 and actually run the 700. Pretty dang cool. Alot bigger, hotter, and noisier than the switch engines I run every day.

A link to the ORHF website.

Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation

This is a link to the Oregon Pacific Railroad website for our little family railroad. Lots of interesting reading if you are into railroads.

Oregon Pacific Railroad Homepage

Enjoy!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links the RR looks awsome.Ive always wanted to work for the RR. Is this were you go to work every day? Looks too cool8) I have always loved trains could be from growing up on a farm with tracks running thru the back forty.
 
S ARR T 8 said:
Thanks for the links the RR looks awsome.Ive always wanted to work for the RR. Is this were you go to work every day? Looks too cool8) I have always loved trains could be from growing up on a farm with tracks running thru the back forty.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a family business. My dad owns it and my two brothers and I run most of the freight trains and do all the track maintenance. If you look at the OPRR site, it is quite detailed and you can see some of the nightmare projects we've been working on for the last few years.

Like this: :shock:

Oregon Pacific Railroad Molalla River Log Jam
 
that things a monster, we have texas & pacific #400 restored and on display where i live, before it got restored it was at the park, i remember playing on it when i was little back in the 80's, they built a shed around it because of the asbestos where it sat for about 10yrs, then they removed all the asbestos and took down the shed and later restored it http://www.texaspacificrailway.org/...cific-railway-steam-2-8-2-400-image-1446.html hers a pic while they were restoring it
 
They had that thing sitting outside of the mens college world series this year. I guess that is one advantage of living in omaha, you get to see old trains alot. Union Pacific has a display as you cross from Iowa into Omaha where they have 2 old trains up on a bluff looking over the interstate. If a tornadoe where to ever come through there, there would be train on the interstate. Good pic to the OP. "thumbsup"
 
My wife and I saw a Challenger roll thru Little Rock a few years back, what an awsome sight and sound these monters make. My granddad was a fireman on the Southern Pacific during the steam era and I have a few B&W photos of his.
Thanks for the links also.
 
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