It Stirs the Soul......
 

........gone are the days......!

One of my buddies who is a railroad historian/buff just sent me a high quality clip of the Union Pacific #3985 "Big Boy" Challenger steaming across some table-flat western landscape.

Gawdamighty! What a sight! As a wee bairn (kid) I went from South Station in Bahstin to Florida on the old "East Coast Meteor"---lugged by a steam locomotive. I remember the bituminous smoke and how it shifted over to anthracite (as my father explained it). Shot along listening to that unique rhythm---got to visit the locomotive itself!!!! Saw the lighted Capitol as we passed DC at night! Later, I remember living in Eau Gallie Florida (up near Melbourne and Canaveral) and standing by the tracks when the Meteor shot past---probably doing 75+ mph! I also remember the TRUE "Orange Blossom Special" when it left the Fort Miami siding loaded with oranges and grapefruit! Ah, it's not so bad, having been born in 1945, I guess!

This western locomotive #3985 is mind-boggling. A bona fide tool o' the gods!

Chowdah,

Post the clip or a link. I have always loved trains, but do not know that much about them. I am currently about to embark on a model railroad setup in a spare bedroom. I have the room cleaned out and am about to build a table to construct it on.

Joe-

If you just hit #3985 on YouTube (which I just did), you'll be AWASH in videos. I'm a sailor and ocean guy all the way----but I remember hiding in the shrubs alongside the tracks in midcoast Florida and having these beasts rip past at over 75 mph. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, quite like it!

My dad told me that these things weigh in the neighborhood of 500 tons! (Million pounds!?). He was born in 1899(!) and knew his stuff, so I'm guessing that is a true stat!

Chow,

Next time you bring your Yankee ass out here, we'll take a trip to the Railroad Museum in Sacramento...assolutely amazing collection, but no Donner Jerky.

Used to ride the rails down to LA several times a year as a kid with my sister to visit the big city grandparents and cousins after the crops were in. Never knew how famous the Tehachapi Loop was til way later. Course now, you can't take the train all the way...Amtrak buses take you over the Grapevine.

Jamoooooooo!
 

Oat-standing (as the Canadian farmers say)....I'll take it as an invite---CLEAN OUT YER POOL-HOUSE!!!!

Jamo has a pool house??

:D :D

Tru.....
 

.....I uster write "Clean a-out yer POO hay-ouse" (in a vain attempt to replicate suvvin' peoples' accent)---but I'm sure that left the door open (pun intended, I guess) to people thinking that I was referring to outdoor plumbin'--ar-ar-ar-oooooodle!!

Joe.....
 

..there's an additional couple of interesting views of old 3985---try cchan006 and Nightflyer. They can be watched in "high quality" and on one of them (with a gang chasing it in a Model T), they even put the video cam RIGHT next to the tracks. Holy SH!T!!!!

If you watch it and listen to the whistle, it's goose-bump time! One of the sites said that 3985 DOES weigh over a million pounds AND that once pulled 6 miles (SIX MILES) of (I presume empty) cars----that must have been on the Wyoming or Nebraska flats....

Apparently, 3985 was one of several "mountain engines" built in the 1930's.

Just foo keen spectacular, in my book.

Chow-dog,

I grew up right on the East-West main line that runs just a little north (3-5 miles) of Interstate 80 in Nebraska. I remember counting cars and getting lost at over 200. Hard to count that high that fast when the train is doing 70 and you are at a crossing gate. Of course those were all the newer diesel engines

There is a museum in Grand Island Ne called Stuhr Museum. It has a lot of old houses (including the house Henry Fonda was born in), a complete 1800s midwest frontier town with a working blacksmith shop, candy shop, saw mill, and others. They had a steam locomotive that would pull passenger cars to a different part of the museum (another small town across the park) but there was no stop there, just display only, then bring you back. I haven't been in 20 years, but I have heard that the locomotive broke down and there was no money to fix it. It is now display only. For anyone who is into the history of the settlement of the west, this is a must visit. I am currently waiting for my wife ankle to heal up and we are going. Possibly next summer, will depend on when we make it back up there. She has never been and I can't wait to go back.

:)

I have visited the great Railroad Museum they have in old Sacramento many times and it is really something. When I was a kid and my Father worked construction we crossed the country several times on trains and I still love the old steam engines over the modern more efficient ones. I did get to ride the Grapevine several times before they started using buses. Great scenery and several locomotives pulling.

Also riding the Santa Fe Special through the Raton Tunnels was exciting the first time or so. The conductors used to point out points so of interest and I could walk the length of the train and they would take me out on the back of the last car to watch the tracks behind us. I once even saw a small heard of buffalo. Flying is much easier and faster, but I still visit every railroad museum I happen to come across.

Ron :)

I read Warren's posts a lot...so I think I know what Fred is saying -- sometimes.

:LOL: :LOL:

I recall a discovery channel show that featured a Canadian coast to coast 8 day train excursion. Absolutely beautiful scenery, If I remember correctly they were filming the last trip of a soon to be cancelled tour but!, it was reestablished after thousands of request to keep it running.

Freddie, that must have been an awesome, earth shaking event for sure! The closest experience I can reference to even begin to relate to that is clinging to the gabion basket seawall at the back end of the airstrip as everything from smoke belchin' DC3's to 727's hurled gravel, smoke and blasts of hot air as they took off and landed over our heads. Used to make us feel what we figured a typical day at the orifice was like for old Saint George!
Of course, the real excitement began when one of the crew would report us, and a bunch of pissed off men armed with a Very pistol would come charging in a little red jeep, sirens blaring. Head for the hills!

The microchip age of modern science brings us some truly amazing stuff, but nothing will ever trump the staggering sights, sounds, smells and feel of the monster machines spawned in the heyday of the industrial age. No microchip driven, virtual 3D, holographic simulation will ever let a kid experience the bellowing might of that locomotive or the menace of an up close view of the turrets on an Iowa-class battleship.

Not so sadly, I suppose, we still have the museums and people like yerself to spin the yarns. When all the yarn spinners do the asses to asses, dust to dust thing, people will be left to stand and wonder just what it must have been like when those magnificent, mighty behemoths ruled the earth.

Challenger Class Locomotives
 

Living near Sacramento, we have had the opportunity to see one of these with some regularity. As I recall, UP still maintains a running version out of one of their yards in Wyoming (might be off on exact location). Some of the following info may not be 100% accurate, but it is close.

Of note, they were able to generate about 6,000HP (+/-) per locomotive. Diesel-Electric locomotives built by GE or EMD only recently were able to attain a similar HP rating (kind of interesting if you think about it.)

Challenger class locomotives were built in two two configurations, cab forward (one of which is kept in the California Railroad Museum here in Sacramento) and of course the more traditional cab location. Main reason for the cab forward design was to avoid some of the breathing problems engineers had going through long tunnels in Sierras.

I think they were considered 4-8-8-4 types...these things are absolutely magnificent when under steam..