1944 was a good year.....

 Hello there and welcome to a non-Jeep blog. I hope you will enjoy this as much as the Jeeping blogs, but today was somewhat of a different adventure. The Union Pacific released a bit of news saying that their steamer 844 would be out on a run and would be passing through Box Elder County and stopping in Ogden overnight. We, the public, were invited to come check it out. So, naturally, I did. This is not the biggest of their steam engines, fact is, it's the smallest of the 3 surviving engines. But don't let that fool you. This thing is anything but small. 

 This particular train was delivered in 1944 for use on high speed passenger trains here in the west. It pulled some famous trains of the time including the Los Angeles Limited, Overland Limited and the Challenger. The news release gave out vital info of the train but left out the top speed. Lucky for us that the Union Station in Ogden has the younger brother of the 844 on display. According to that display, these trains would do 110 mph. That is a lot of speed. Oh, how much fun would it have been to ride on this train. Even better, how much fun would it have been to be the engineer?

 Looking in the cab, there are 2 seats with controls in front of both seats. No one was hanging around to answer any questions so I can't say if you can drive from both sides. The bloody thing is so long that in order to see whats ahead of you, you would have to hang your head out the windows quite a ways. 

 As you can see, there are a ton of valves and gauges and levers and....... looks damn complicated to me. But you have to admit....  it would be a pleasure to learn how to run this thing. A few people up here took their drones out and captured it coming down the tracks. It is so impressive. If you click on the link above to my web page, you can go from there to my youtube page and watch a video of the Union Pacific's 3985 Challenger I took 20 years ago. Oh hell, lets just add the link here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4c_ym9f7pE

 This thing is big. I am standing on the platform looking down on the guy. The wheels on this beast are 80" high. The overall length oh the engine and tender is just over 114'. The combined weight is 454 tons. The engine is powerful. To get that much weight plus a host of passenger cars up to 110 miles per hour..... wow! 

With all the moving parts associated with getting the power to the track, the train requires a ton of upkeep. Every moving joint has to be greased often. The fotos don't show just how many grease spots there are or how much grease is flung everywhere. 

 The connecting rods here above have got to be strong as anything and probably weight over a ton a piece. Just out of the foto there are two mechanics working on something that required their attention. An interesting sight, not included in these fotos was that one of the cars it was pulling was a mobile machine shop. There was a welder, a small crane and a metal lathe all set up and ready to run. I guess when what your driving hasn't been made in over 60 years you have to learn how to make it on the fly. Its not like you can go to your local CarQuest store and by a new part.

 The tender of 844 is huge. It holds 23,500 gallons of water and 6200 gallons of fuel oil. For this trip, there was actually a second tender coupled behind the original to keep it fueled and watered. With the diesel engine replacing the steam engine, water stops are few and far between anymore. It would be quite interesting to run out of fuel or water on a good will trip like this one.   

This last foto is one about the American way of doing things. If you click on the foto and look at it up close you will see that there are rivets everywhere. This engine was built in a time of true manpower. Each one of those rivets was placed there by a man or woman who took pride in their job. These things were not built on an assembly line by robots. They were built by American men and women by hand in an age long past. Their commitment to quality still shows today. This train is awesome! Jeep on my friends.