Does anyone know why U.P. seems to have once again gone silent on what is going on with Big Boy 4014?
I think it was posted on here that work continues on 4014 with a completion date if 2019. thier more urgent need is to get the 844 back on the road.
BENJAMIN DEUTSCHMAN Does anyone know why U.P. seems to have once again gone silent on what is going on with Big Boy 4014?
ROBERT WILLISONIt would be nice if they'd post something along those lines. I think it was posted on here that work continues on 4014 with a completion date if 2019. thier more urgent need is to get the 844 back on the road.
It would be nice if U.P. would have shared this with everyone through one of their posts.
Who ever said the up was nice. Let's see what happens with the steam program as traffic, profits and its stock price continues to drop.
UP steam program has been around for a long, long, long time. UP was running fantrips fairly consistantly across 40 years without let up. UP844 was built new and never retired and has been occupying the roundhouse and backshop in Cheyene for almost all that time. What locomotive and railroad in the world could say that?
CB&Q was a big time player in steam in the 60's, so was Reading RR and Grand Trunk Western and of course Denver Rio Grande and Western. In the 70's it was CSX with Ross Rolland. In the 80's it was the Claytors and the Southern RR steam program still later with N&W steam. All these have come and gone but UP has continued relentlessly to field quality operational steam trips without let up.
Talk about a fragile steam program look at Cumbries Toltec or Silverton RR, or the ATSF northern in New Mexico or California or the Frisco 4-8-2 or even NW 611 these are fragile operations where theiR very substance could be gone in a moment. UP Steam is an entirely different animal.
Think about it - for crying out loud JFK was president of the USA and Winston Churchill as well as Eisenhower were still alive and the UP steam program has come right through to Obama. UP steam is one of the most consistant things in AMERICA!
UP is into steam so deep its hard to account for all the knowledge, tradition and experience. They field an entire fleet of operational passenger cars, to go with stockpiles of spare parts and parts locomotives and originall roundhouse and backshop to keep everything going and they are not scaling back! They don't have to get permission from a Class 1 carrier to run their engines they are a Class 1 carrier. They own the tracks too! They probably know more about how to run heavy major steam than any major railroad in the country - you think a corporation of this caliber is going to get hold of its former 4-8-8-4 and haul it from California to Wyoming half way across the country without intentions on what its going to do with it? Its nothing for these guys to think in terms of decades of planning and their financial "war chest" is astronomical.
One other thing. The business community in America has radically changed. Corporate level executives live and act like royalty - as do most of the wealthy people in America - the age of the common stockholder controling a major company has come and gone. Most stockholders now are mutual fund houses and have little personal opinion to contest with corporate mangament except for overall company productivity. Managment acts and does as it likes with the new age perspective "were in charge now and we can do whatever we want."
UP Corporate leadership is of the perspective that the railroad is run for profit - and steam train is along for the ride for public relations purposes - and as such will run when it fulfills that corporate purpose. Union Pacific just double tracked the Southern Pacific main line half way across the country and didn't think twice about it. The post WWII days of "pulling up the tracks with going out of business" are gone! ---------- and just how much trouble do you think a couple of old steam engines could possibly be to a corporate giant like Union Pacific?
So how about we give the UP a little credit for "knowing how to run a railroad" and expectantly wait for some of the good things that are going to happen?
Doc
Good post Dr. D, and everything you say is true.
The trouble is, all that could change overnight with a change in top corporate management. Like a NASCAR sponsorship, the steam program could vanish overnight, for a variety of reasons.
That being said, I don't think the UP's steam program is going away anytime soon. And 4014? I'm putting it on the mental "back burner" for now and not giving it much thought. It'll be ready when it's ready.
Credit where credit is due: here is the latest UP Steam Shop update on 4014:
Brief, but it sets a good precedent...
Well im not a huge ed dickens fan but i will give credit where credit is due they are getting things done :)
In the back of my mind im wondering if ed having an onsite boss in the form of scott george has straightened out the shop , anyways great progress
I suppose it would make sense to concentrate on a running locomotive needing scheduled major overhaul, versus one that has sat dead and cold for 50+ years.
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