zkr123I know 3985 has been in the shop for a while. When will it be up and running?
This has been addressed at least twice on the Forum that I know of, and nothing new has occurred (to my knowledge) since then. Find and read those threads... there was some discussion on RyPN also.
Don't expect 3985 until after the Big Boy has been restored, and then run for all the sesquicentennial celebrations. Any effort and any money spent on 3985 at this point, other than to stabilize it in present condition, is effort and money better spent on 4014.
I'd like to see a 'market' for two big articulateds at the same time. Not sure that even UP will find the money to run both, and 844, at the same time. I suspect work on 3985 will be 'prioritized' if there are unusual or unsolved problems with the oil conversion for the Big Boy that make it uneconomical or unreliable in service. But that's only speculation.
Exactly right.....
But maybe 3985 will be back in time for a Double-Header with 4014! Challanger and Big Boy, hand in had, stomping Sherman Hill the way they were designed to do together!
Or even Triple-Header with 844!
But that's just wishful thinking... I can still dream on......
Overmodif there are unusual or unsolved problems with the oil conversion for the Big Boy that make it uneconomical or unreliable in service. But that's only speculation.
There won't be, it's essentially a proven product.
Nothing fundamentally different than with the 3985's firebox, and the only issue of any sort of significance with a test done back in the day (Using a single burner, as I recall) was that she was a bit too fuel thirsty to reliably make it between refueling stations.
Not only can they make her more efficient today with multiple burners like they should've done initially (And quite possibly would've, had the threatened coal strike come to fruition), but she won't be hauling mile long strings of 40' boxcars and reefers day in and day out.
That this thoroughly inefficent machine by 21st century standards ends up perhaps to be somewhat fuel thirsty compared to her stablemates, is essentially irrelevant in today's context.
They're not out for the most fuel efficent excursion power or they'd put diesels on such specials. She'll be steaming because she's a Union Pacific Big Boy.
Overmod Not sure that even UP will find the money to run both, and 844, at the same time.
Not sure that even UP will find the money to run both, and 844, at the same time.
UP is a multi billion dollar operation. There is no such thing as 'finding' the money to do it. It is as simple as just 'doing it!'.
Say two million a piece is only 6 million total. UP could cut that check and not even notice it was missing. Im thinking its available, experienced manpower that is needed for the work. Not money. You cant rebuild 3 locos with only one crew of shop folks.
Rest assured, UP has the $$$$!
The biggest problem is not finding the funds to repair and run 3985, 4014, or 844 -- the craft trades of boilermaker and steam pipefitter are not being taught anywhere and those who did know the craft are all retired.
cacole The biggest problem is not finding the funds to repair and run 3985, 4014, or 844 -- the craft trades of boilermaker and steam pipefitter are not being taught anywhere and those who did know the craft are all retired.
That's just silly. I hope that people from Wasatch read this and comment, and that even if Ed Dickens is a martinet, someone from the UP shop will also say what they think of those assertions. Others (at Strasburg, for instance) might disagree with your premise too. We might even hear from Meiningen.
There have been some good posts here and on RyPN showing(relatively young) folks doing good riveted-boiler fabrication, including specialized details like dome attachment and proper stay design. While I think that everyone who knew the craft of welded and stress-relieved locomotive boiler shells as developed (all too briefly!) in the United States may have passed on, there is certainly a broad spectrum of people who know fired pressure vessels and fabrication techniques well enough to make them safely. Regarding pipefitters ... well, who do you think does the piping for all those high-pressure powerplants, beside which the requirements for workable locomotives amount to medium pressure? (And there is nothing particularly magical about the more locomotive-specific items, such as flexible joints, that might not be encountered in a typical steamfitter's apprentice program.)
Now, if you mean that the men who actually worked on the locomotives aren't going to be around much longer... yes, regrettably, that's true. I agree that we should do whatever possible to ensure that the practical skills involved in shop work be transmitted to the 'next generations' of steam-locomotive enthusiasts, firsthand. But I don't think the sky will fall just because the 'old guard' has checked out. And in some respects, I think actual design and fabrication practice will become better, not worse.
Bull dinky...the tradesmen exist or could be taught. Its all about what up wants to spend. As it was said before..up has the money, but they also have stock holders.
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