so what are they getting in return??? i have heard some coachs & a couple of diesels ??? anybody hear anything else ??
can i get a hell yea !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
samfp1943 In the TRAINS Newswire date Dec 7, Pomona, Ca. : There is a story that the owners of Big Boy 4014 have been approached about a deal to get their previously donated Big Boy (in 1962) back into the UP's Steam program. It would take a major rebuild, certainly involving years to get her bacK into operations....If it did come to fruition! A sort of 'Holy Grail' for rail buffs, all over the world... The Newswire story says all contacts are currently just preliminary. What a thing to contemplate!
In the TRAINS Newswire date Dec 7, Pomona, Ca. :
There is a story that the owners of Big Boy 4014 have been approached about a deal to get their previously donated Big Boy (in 1962) back into the UP's Steam program.
It would take a major rebuild, certainly involving years to get her bacK into operations....If it did come to fruition! A sort of 'Holy Grail' for rail buffs, all over the world... The Newswire story says all contacts are currently just preliminary. What a thing to contemplate!
TODAY (July 23,2013)
THE OTHER SHOE HAS FALLEN!
Railroad Plans to Restore One of the Largest Steam Locomotives Ever Built
Story from UPRR web site linked here!
http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/releases/heritage_and_steam/2013/0723_4014.shtml
FTA:"...Omaha, Neb., July 23, 2013 – Union Pacific Railroad today announced it reached an agreement with the Southern California Chapter - Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in Pomona, Calif., to transfer ownership of one of the world's largest steam locomotives, Big Boy No. 4014, back to Union Pacific.
Union Pacific plans to relocate No. 4014 to Cheyenne, Wyo., where Union Pacific's Heritage Fleet Operations team will work to restore it to operating condition. Details regarding those efforts will be made public at a later date.
Union Pacific donated No. 4014 to the historical society December 7, 1961. The locomotive arrived January 8, 1962, at its current display location at the Rail Giants Train Museum in Pomona.."
Read the link tto UP's site for additional details and contacts....
JUST WOW!
OK, now THAT makes it official! Barring any major change in corporate management that becomes hostile to steam we should see it happen.
I'll tell you, when it's up and running Lady Firestorm and I will be headin' west. She's looking forward to leaning on the pilot and saying "Hey Big Boy, new in town?"
Completely amazing!
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
FREE STORY:
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
so far the only movement on big boy is the 4018 moving to frisco this week :P
I certainly haven't heard anything. The last I heard was the "Oh yeah, it's comin', it's comin'!" announcement from the UP Historical Society several weeks ago.
Now with all due respect to the UPHS, and without trying to cast any aspersions on their veracity, I'd have to say "Sorry boys, you're the Uncle Pete fan club, you're not Uncle Pete himself. I'll withhold any celebrations until the UP itself puts it out in black and white."
So far, nothing. But I will say that if Union Pacific really wants a live Big Boy on hand for the Golden Spike Sesquicentennial in 2019 they'd better get busy.
This was Post was originally posted by me this past December 7,2012..
Does anyone here have any further, current information on the progress.. or lack thereof of the Reincarnation of UP 4014.
Baring that return of the 4014.. any other movement to get a UP RR "Big Boy" (4-8-8-4) back on the active railroad ?
Since there seem not to have been any further articles about this subject. I think it is a fair topic top bring back up and see if the pot is stirring. Anyone add to the subject ?
you make some very good points
1. it was said that they will not really get anything done till feb interms of moving it and such so until then nothing will come out offically
2 my understanding is that they evaluated all the big boys & listed them in order of condition so they will go down the list , so this isnt a 1 & done deal
3.this helps the union pacific ,if the califorina chapter cant come to terms then they will move on.
4.if they do move on & another candidate is sucessfully restored then it will look pretty bad for the califorina chapter, they will be know as the chapter that didnt want to get a steam loco restored & when you make your money on public funds, thats not something you will want to portray . so if they want to have positive light shone on them they have to complete this deal. think about it , you know how many groups are dieing for someone to come in with limtless cash and restore thier steam to running condition ,& these guys turn down such a senerio,.....wow
thomas81z haymaker71 I wonder if Lee was right. It seems like I remeber reading and seeing on several train programs that when the UP put the 4000's in service they had to widen the load gauge by move the railbed anyplace they would meet another train. Could they width of the engine cause trouble in todays world. Also the UP has converted its other engines to oil firing, but the Big Boys didn't like oil firing in the days of steam so you have the added problem of providing fuel for the engine. Don't get me wrong I would love to see one in action again. I personally love to watch it out work todays lasted diesels. Just wondering. the " oil conversion trial" was 1/2 hearted at best they only used 1 burner out of an 800 & it was only tried just incase the coal strike came to reality , today getting it to fire under diesel/ fuel oil would not be a problem . its the 21st century there is a great debate on a pipefitter / machine forum about the big boy returning, of course everybody from fish forums to dress forums seem to have a thread about the big boy returning , but i digress the machinest forum has it pretty much solved any of the heating / firing issues. wish i kept the url . but big boy isnt any more of an issue on the rails then the 89' auto racks
haymaker71 I wonder if Lee was right. It seems like I remeber reading and seeing on several train programs that when the UP put the 4000's in service they had to widen the load gauge by move the railbed anyplace they would meet another train. Could they width of the engine cause trouble in todays world. Also the UP has converted its other engines to oil firing, but the Big Boys didn't like oil firing in the days of steam so you have the added problem of providing fuel for the engine. Don't get me wrong I would love to see one in action again. I personally love to watch it out work todays lasted diesels. Just wondering.
I wonder if Lee was right. It seems like I remeber reading and seeing on several train programs that when the UP put the 4000's in service they had to widen the load gauge by move the railbed anyplace they would meet another train. Could they width of the engine cause trouble in todays world. Also the UP has converted its other engines to oil firing, but the Big Boys didn't like oil firing in the days of steam so you have the added problem of providing fuel for the engine. Don't get me wrong I would love to see one in action again. I personally love to watch it out work todays lasted diesels. Just wondering.
You must also remember that the Big boy ran at 300 PSI. I can only imagine the fire it used to take to get it to 300 PSI. When the oil experiments were going on I am sure they were running the boiler at full pressure with the heaviest trains they could find. They also tended to do firebox experiments in the dead of Winter to make sure the locomotive could run with a full train in sub zero temps. There is a World of difference of what that locomotive was pulling then and what it would pull now.
You don't need that huge fire or PSI to pull 18 or 20 passenger cars. I know the Challenger can run all day with out refueling for oil. I am sure if the oil system worked on the Challenger it will work on the Big boy.
I know we haven't heard any recent news on the Big boy. In my experience no news is good news. If the plan didn't go through usually they are quick to tell people about it. I am sure the Pomona people are called and E-mailed constantly with people wanting to know about the status of this project. So if the plan didn't go through I can't see any reason to delay the news.
I think even if the plan didn't work out the Big boy in Holiday park would be fair game.
thomas81zOK why doesn't the union Pacific want to give them the 5011. 2-10-2 ? Really. They are never. Going. To restore. That beast. Strange
It has been a while, but there are talks of putting her on static display here in Rock Springs. Ill give a friend a call and see what the status is on that.
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
http://sweetwater-photography.com/
Or you could go to the extreme with models, props, and the like (a la Lerro Productions).
no
Thomas 9011 I think they just put a fog machine in the smoke box to puff a little smoke now and then just for fun. I have seen this done in a few other park and display locomotives. Every 10 or 15 minutes smoke comes out of the smoke box, and sometimes there is automated mechanism that rings the bell a few times.
I think they just put a fog machine in the smoke box to puff a little smoke now and then just for fun. I have seen this done in a few other park and display locomotives. Every 10 or 15 minutes smoke comes out of the smoke box, and sometimes there is automated mechanism that rings the bell a few times.
Thanks for the links, Thomas! Now, I wonder why they did this? It doesn't look like there was an open house or rail festival in progress. Photo session maybe?
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1900044
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/LocoPicture.aspx?id=37697
no its under house steam i will link it :)
4023 steaming in 1976? Are you sure it was actually under steam and the steam n' smoke weren't just 'special effects" for photo purposes?
If you can't figure out how to post the picture (don't feel bad, I can't either) just tell us where to find it, we'll take care of ourselves.
well i found pics of the 4023 steaming in cheyenne yard in 1976 but i cant figure out how to post a pic from my pc onto the thread
its gonna be a while they have to do the behind scenes contracts with the lawyers & iron out alot of stuff , if & i say if the 4014 is the choice , they wanted to have it on its way to cheyenne sometime in feb
Has anyone heard any recent news?
Lehigh Valley 2089 Firelock76Well, at this point I'm putting any Big Boy restoration on the mental back burner. It'll happen when it happens as far as I'm concerned. I won't be losing any sleep worrying about it. I'm in the same boat right now, though it would be really cool if they did start work on it. And I feel that the museum has enough other unique locomotives that it can make up for the absence of the Big Boy. As mentioned before, they have 9000, 6915, and other unique locomotives.
Firelock76Well, at this point I'm putting any Big Boy restoration on the mental back burner. It'll happen when it happens as far as I'm concerned. I won't be losing any sleep worrying about it.
I'm in the same boat right now, though it would be really cool if they did start work on it.
And I feel that the museum has enough other unique locomotives that it can make up for the absence of the Big Boy. As mentioned before, they have 9000, 6915, and other unique locomotives.
It is true the museum has some very unique and great locomotives with great past history, but the fairgrounds mentality thinking is all new and up to date latest show items. Those two three cylinder locomotives are just about the most unique locomotives in the USA. I believe the Franklin museum also has one of the special Baldwin three cylinder locomotives, but these were used for service for many years and are the remaining sole survivors’ of that type. We have been out there many times over the years to visit the great locomotives and it is a nice display. The O scale layout under the grand stands was a great show also, but it was removed. I can understand their concern about the 4014 being removed from their display. They also have the largest diesel in their display.
The good news is the 4018 in Dallas should be in decent shape for rebuilding if they really want a Big Boy back on the tracks. It was recently removed from the old location and moved to Frisco Texas for their new home. New pistons rods could be manufactured along with many other items needed to rebuild it or they could be removed from one of the others on display.
CZ
wjstix A state rep. or senator proposes a bill - or talks about proposing one - and it will cause a big stir in the news, and then it goes nowhere -
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
"The letter stressed that at this time there is no firm proposal from the railroad, and the two parties are only in the midst of exploratory discussions."
Well, we'll see. I work for our state government, and today is the first day of the new Legislative session. Inevitably we'll see similar things in the next months. A state rep. or senator proposes a bill - or talks about proposing one - and it will cause a big stir in the news, and then it goes nowhere - but people still get excited about it. I've seen it happen where someone talks about possibly proposing increasing say the Education Credit on the state tax return, and the day after it's mentioned on the news people start calling our office asking how they can get their share of the money that the state is giving out.
cefinkjr Semper Vaporo True, cars and engines are built to certain outline clearances ("Plate ?"), but remember that the Challenger, when on an excursion to the east just a few years ago, in the words of Steve Lee "remodeled a couple of coal cars" on an adjacent track in a curve. (And as I remember the photos later, the Challenger itself was "remodeled" more than just a wee scratch on the front left side, too.) I understand UP told CRR "never again" after this incident.
Semper Vaporo True, cars and engines are built to certain outline clearances ("Plate ?"), but remember that the Challenger, when on an excursion to the east just a few years ago, in the words of Steve Lee "remodeled a couple of coal cars" on an adjacent track in a curve. (And as I remember the photos later, the Challenger itself was "remodeled" more than just a wee scratch on the front left side, too.)
True, cars and engines are built to certain outline clearances ("Plate ?"), but remember that the Challenger, when on an excursion to the east just a few years ago, in the words of Steve Lee "remodeled a couple of coal cars" on an adjacent track in a curve. (And as I remember the photos later, the Challenger itself was "remodeled" more than just a wee scratch on the front left side, too.)
I understand UP told CRR "never again" after this incident.
Besides that, I didn't think that a Big Boy has any reason to be heading to the east coast, other than to show it off, which I doubt the UP would do anyway since the only line that I know that the Big Boy could handle without much difficulty, as far as clearences, is Sherman Hill.
ChuckAllen, TX
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