Kawasaki Concours Forum
Mish mash => Open Forum => Topic started by: Two Skies on May 04, 2014, 12:57:20 PM
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I snapped this as she was passing through Layton this morning...
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Wow, love those Big boys, looks like it was being pushed, no smoke? Would have loved seeing that go by.
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She's on her way to Cheyenne for full restoration. They did pipe some air to the whistle at least (sounded pretty cool when she sounded off), but yeah she's being pushed & pulled back home from Cali to Wyoming. Stone cold boilers...
The diesel in the front is #4014, and the one in the back is #4884. How cute...
Hopefully the restoration doesn't take more than a couple of years...
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Very cool. Here's the story.... http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/locomotives/4014.shtml (http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/locomotives/4014.shtml)
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My dad is from a small town near Birmingham, AL and he said those types used to haul coal through the town in the 40's, this was a single track snaking through the hills and through the cuts in rural Alabama. Can you imagine the sound and sight that would have been?
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I've never heard of an articulated locomotive before. The thing is a monster.
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The articulation enabled the HUGE monsters to negotiate the tight turns of many roads, railroads that is.
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The diesel in the front is #4014, and the one in the back is #4884. How cute...
That's cool that UP arranged that.
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OK, bad with math and codes, why is that cute?
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Diesel #4014 is pulling Steam Engine/Big Boy #4014
Steam Engine #4014 has a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement (4 smaller wheels, 8 driving wheels, 8 more driving wheels, 4 smaller wheels). So Diesel #4884 doing the pushing is a nod to the 4-8-8-4 arrangement.
Incidentally, Diesel #4014 is an SD-70M, built in 2000. #4884 is also an SD-70M according to the UP roster, built in 2002.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locolist.aspx?id=UP&Page=62 (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locolist.aspx?id=UP&Page=62)
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Yeah, and it has two complete sets of driving wheels. Not unlike two complete locomotives, and big ones at that, melded together into one big machine. Not the highest traction (pulling force ) rated locomotive but close. The engine and tender weigh 1 1/4 million pounds and can reach 80 MPH. The firebox is 27 feet deep and is fed from the tender by an auger; no human could possibly keep up with those fuel requirements with a shovel.
Great to hear one is going in for restoration! I went twice to Scranton, PA to see the one on display there and would travel a fair distance to see one belch smoke and actually move.
I hope there is enough integrity in the boiler and various other, critical parts that it can be restored. There had been talk of restoring one years ago for a movie but the project was scrapped due to the expected cost and the fact that there was a fair amount of uncertainty that it could even be done.
Brian
I've never heard of an articulated locomotive before. The thing is a monster.
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I think the very fact that it is being done by the railroad as opposed to a non-profit hobby group is the only reason it was ever considered remotely possible. Think of the all the knowledge needed to undertake this huge project, not to mention all the parts and labor and manpower during and after to keep it running. and all the knowledge needed to be learned as many who ran it and kept it running are gone or have forgotten. Major, major, major money.
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Aaahh....the power of boiling water. One more great example of "They don't build 'em like they used to."
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I think the very fact that it is being done by the railroad as opposed to a non-profit hobby group is the only reason it was ever considered remotely possible. Think of the all the knowledge needed to undertake this huge project, not to mention all the parts and labor and manpower during and after to keep it running. and all the knowledge needed to be learned as many who ran it and kept it running are gone or have forgotten. Major, major, major money.
Yeah, restoring/maintaining a Vintage 4-4-0 or similar is child's play compared to the sheer number and size of parts that a Big Boy has... good thing U.P. sees some promotional value in fixing her up!
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Yeah, all those parts will have to be made from scratch since all the tooling for all of everything is gone along with all the people who made them. Nostalgia is BIG these days, boomers got lots of money to spend on old looking stuff, retro baby.
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Ya, well, the best laid plans...
Major winds aloft my whole trip. Combine that with the rock piles we call mountains, and Ogden was a no-go.
Friggin cool pix you snapped though :)
Rick
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There's always Cheyenne...
;D
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Agreed, and no doubt those are the best folks to take the stab at the restoration. I am sure it will cost a lot under any circumstances but my wariness is the cost should something really large and structural is no longer serviceable, such as the boiler itself. All the locomotive mfg.s that could do that are gone but certainly someplace like Electric Boat could roll, weld and have such a thing certified but at some point the costs would really skyrocket.
Then again, those things were built like trains and a mere 50, 60 years of normal corrosion will bounce off of most of it.
I am very much looking forward to seeing that thing power its way down a track again....
Brian
I think the very fact that it is being done by the railroad as opposed to a non-profit hobby group is the only reason it was ever considered remotely possible. Think of the all the knowledge needed to undertake this huge project, not to mention all the parts and labor and manpower during and after to keep it running. and all the knowledge needed to be learned as many who ran it and kept it running are gone or have forgotten. Major, major, major money.