There are YouTube and in-person observations that 4014 has a serious water injector leak in Louisiana. The crew was supposed to repair it today(August 24). in addition,one of the towns in which they had intended to get water from would not let them get the water because there was a fear that the town would go dry.So that made the situation worse. If anyone knows more info about this,please let us know. Thank you.
Whatever the delay was, they rectified it by afternoon; the locomotive was at the expected location for the Shreveport stop (just off Jewella) as of 7:38PM CDT yesterday.
OvermodWhatever the delay was, they rectified it by afternoon;
Considering the herculian effort that went into the restoration of 4014 I'd think any problems with the locomotive at this point would be of a relatively minor nature and easily rectified.
But what do I know? I don't restore steam or run it, I just go "OOOO! AHHHH!" when I see one.
Accidents happen, sometimes without warning -- I certainly don't have to remind you that no plan, no matter how carefully crafted, given redundancy, or designed for graceful degrade and failover, survives contact with the enemy. (Which has Murphy and Finagle in their ranks)
I note this morning they cancelled the scheduled day in Shreveport; they were rolling west early in the morning, and should be passing north through Atlanta in just a few minutes.
(Ain't I a stinker???)
Erased.
You have any idea how much White-Out I used on the computer screen?
OvermodAccidents happen, sometimes without warning -- I certainly don't have to remind you that no plan, no matter how carefully crafted, given redundancy, or designed for graceful degrade and failover, survives contact with the enemy. (Which has Murphy and Finagle in their ranks)
And also includes Generalfeldmarschall Helmuth von Moltke! (The Elder)
Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be a case of SNAFU. Things break, some break routinely, but rarely on a steam locomotive.
Breakfast would have been interesting this morning.
I would love to have been there and see it cross the Mississippi on the Huey Long Bridge in New Orleans.
York1 John
I asked my doctor if I gave up delicious food and all alcohol, would I live longer? He said, "No, but it will seem longer."
Water may be coming up to the bottom of that bridge later this weekend.
Note that the 4014 is traveling with a tender and two canteens.
Question - is the tender configured for both oil and water or has it been reconfigured for oil only.
I view getting properly treated water as being one of the biggest hurdles to jump over for the continuing operation and maintenance 4014. I have heard horror stories of how improperly treated water have damaged boilers nearly beyond repair.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACDQuestion - is the tender configured for both oil and water or has it been reconfigured for oil only.
I have heard horror stories of how improperly treated water have damaged boilers nearly beyond repair.
What I see as 'most probable scenario' here is that something may have caused an injector to 'break' unnoticed, or otherwise start leaking, to a degree that required a delay to repair, and this was of sufficient magnitude to require an 'unplanned' water stop. This is presupposing it wasn't just a case of one of the planned water stops not being prepared correctly, and the train delayed with minimum steam consumption (which can be very low indeed!) until proper water or arrangements for it could be made.
As I expect to see the crew in St. Louis on Sunday (weather or not!) I may be able to provide a better technical account of whatever it actually was. (I confess I'm very glad I didn't plan to go to Shreveport!)
Regarding the tender on 4014, remember it is actually the tender off 3985. I had a video back in the day of 3985 that included showing the conversion of 3985 to oil in 1990. They actually took out the "oil insert" from the tender of 3977 that is on display in a park in North Platte. The film shows the UP Steam Team at that time pulling out the insert and then sliding it into the 3985 tender.
The 4884-1 class Big Boys, of which 4014 is one, arrived from ALCO in 1941 with tenders that had 24,000 gallons of water capacity.
The 4664-4 class Challengers, of which 3985 is one, arrived from ALCO in 1943 with tenders that had 25,000 gallons of water capacity.
UP would swap tenders at will between the 4664-3, 4664-4 and 4664-5, 4884-1 and 4884-2 classes. I am not sure what tender was on 4014 when it was retired, but one thing for certain is that by using the 3985 tender with the 25,000-gallon water capacity, they have 1,000 gallons more available for trips than if they would have had to use 4014's original tender.
Here is a short 2-minute 31-second video of 4014's current tender in the company of 3985 highballing at 70 mph across western Nebraska in 2007:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nP1_4ymsIig
And here is an 11-minute video from 2008 where 4014's tender starts from a dead stop and highballs east across Nebraska on a cloudy day. It invokes some of the old films from the 1950s when UP steam was still common on the main line.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cq7mrqFbMn4
kgbw49 Regarding the tender on 4014, remember it is actually the tender off 3985. I had a video back in the day of 3985 that included showing the conversion of 3985 to oil in 1990. They actually took out the "oil insert" from the tender of 3977 that is on display in a park in North Platte. The film shows the UP Steam Team at that time pulling out the insert and then sliding it into the 3985 tender. The 4884-1 class Big Boys, of which 4014 is one, arrived from ALCO in 1941 with tenders that had 24,000 gallons of water capacity. The 4664-4 class Challengers, of which 3985 is one, arrived from ALCO in 1943 with tenders that had 25,000 gallons of water capacity. UP would swap tenders at will between the 4664-3, 4664-4 and 4664-5, 4884-1 and 4884-2 classes. I am not sure what tender was on 4014 when it was retired, but one thing for certain is that by using the 3985 tender with the 25,000-gallon water capacity, they have 1,000 gallons more available for trips than if they would have had to use 4014's original tender. Here is a short 2-minute 31-second video of 4014's current tender in the company of 3985 highballing at 70 mph across western Nebraska in 2007: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nP1_4ymsIig And here is an 11-minute video from 2008 where 4014's tender starts from a dead stop and highballs east across Nebraska on a cloudy day. It invokes some of the old films from the 1950s when UP steam was still common on the main line. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cq7mrqFbMn4
Awesome videos. Thanks!
How fast has 4104 gone since the restoration? Over 50 yet? I'd sure like to see video of her going 70 mph also.
Still in training.
Lithonia OperatorHow fast has 4104 gone since the restoration? Over 50 yet? I'd sure like to see video of her going 70 mph also.
Me too, but if the UP Steam Team is being a little conservative running 4014 I don't blame them.
As the saying goes, just because you can doesn't mean you should.
What do we know to be the fastest it's gone?
I may be going out on a limb here, but I believe I've read a "Big Boy" could run comfortably at 70 MPH, "if and when." How often this actually happened I don't know.
The drivers are at essentially full diameter, having worn very little. The valve gear is properly lightweight and long-travel and the engines were balanced to the 80mph range (the 10% over max seevice speed)
Last I looked, 844/3985 were both rated at '83mph' in official documentation. I would not expect to see this locomotive actually operated that fast.
No one is admitting there was any kind of injector or water-loss problem, that there was an 'emergency' water stop, or that the water at any periodic stop was of poor (or unexpected) quality.
The PTC equipment on the locomotive has to interface with trailing diesel 4015, which is done entirely via Ethernet cable. There is no GPS facilitation on the locomotive, although there is a cab-signal inductor under the pilot; Ed Dickinson confirmed the 'offset' is done in software.
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