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 Post subject: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 4:51 pm 

Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2017 2:32 pm
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CHEYENNE, WY – On Monday, November 27, 2017, the Cheyenne City Council approved full funding for the cosmetic restoration of Big Boy No. 4004 located at Holiday Park in Downtown Cheyenne. The contractor selected to perform the restoration is Wasatch Railroad Contractors, a locally owned and locally based railroad restoration company. The restoration project which begins in December 2017 is slated to take under six months with a completion date sometime in May 2018.
   
"Our company has done some amazing projects all over the world and we are really excited to be able to share our talents and abilities with our own community", said John E. Rimmasch, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Wasatch Railroad Contractors. 

"We are very grateful to the city for making this project a priority.  It not only preserves and protects a great treasure of railroad history, it also promotes the city and our rich railroad legacy,” said Cheyenne resident Robert Krieger who serves as the Office Administrator for the Union Pacific Historical Society. “We are excited to see Wasatch Railroad Contractors involved as they have a long history of very successful projects. The Big Boy is going to look great when it is finished."

The locomotive will be restored to resemble how it looked when it was delivered to the Union Pacific in August of 1941. In addition, the boiler jacket will be removed and all asbestos will be removed from the locomotive. A new boiler jacket will be installed, the cab will be repaired, the locomotive will be stabilized in other areas and then given a new coat of jet black industrial paint and trimmed out correctly.

"When finished, it will look dramatically different than it does now" said Steve Lee, Project Executive assigned by Wasatch Railroad Contractors. Lee, a longtime Cheyenne resident and retired Superintendent of Heritage Operations of the Union Pacific Railroad will lead the team that will perform the cosmetic restoration. Mike Pannell, another longtime resident of Cheyenne and known railroad historian, will act as Project Manager. Lee commented, "We have a very qualified and dedicated team on this project."   

"We are not making any promises and our contract allows for more time, however, our goal is to have this project complete prior to Depot Days 2018 which is scheduled to take place in May. Our ability to make the goal will really be driven by the weather, but we will surely do our best." Rimmasch said of the deadline and goals of the project.
Attachment:
File comment: Big Boy No. 4023 in Omaha restored by WRC in 2005.
UP No. 4023 - 800x600.jpg
UP No. 4023 - 800x600.jpg [ 217.33 KiB | Viewed 7627 times ]

In 2005 Wasatch Railroad Contractors performed a similar cosmetic restoration to Big Boy No. 4023, located at Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, Nebraska. The 4023 and Centennial 6900 rest about the crowning archway display into Omaha on the western bank of the Missouri River.    

Local railfans and historians are also excited about the project.  

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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 10:07 pm 

Joined: Thu May 24, 2012 1:37 pm
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Welcome back. And I for one look forward to a good restoration, with details as often as possible here.

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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Fri Dec 01, 2017 10:17 pm 

Joined: Fri Mar 26, 2010 11:43 am
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I would argue this is not a 'restoration' but would be true preservation. So often we call it preserved simply because it was rolled off of the scrapper's track. It's just saved, or reserved?. Some lucky ones got covered, protected, but many of them were just pushed into the open and really left to rot. This one will be stabilized, pickled. It would be best if it could be covered but this stabilization should buy it another 20 years or so.


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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 2:21 am 

Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm
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giving it an overall lube job, roll it a little bit if possible too keep some of its mechanics in shape is a good idea.


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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:04 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:26 am
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Location: Maine
I've been surprised that UP didn't grab this locomotive for immediate restoration instead of 4014. The Big Boy from Pomona was lubed and painted, and kept in good condition, yet it has required a complete tear down for the rebuild. 4004 has been in several floods, but would require no less of a tear down, would it not?

Putting 4004 undercover, like several of her sisters, would be the best use of funds to preserve her indefinitely. I hate the idea that in 20 years, some might consider it "progressive" to remove something this wonderful as so much "junk".

I recall a story Ron Ziel told me. While writing "Twilight of Steam" in 1963, he saw the line of condemned Big Boys and Challengers in Cheyenne. 4015 was about to be cut up, when the torch operator asked Ron if he wanted to take the first cut. Ron told him he couldn't do that to something he loved so much.

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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:39 am 

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Quote:
"The Big Boy from Pomona was lubed and painted, and kept in good condition, yet it has required a complete tear down for the rebuild."


I suspect this was more dictated by the UP quality-management system, which requires full materials and condition analysis for all components so they are 'trackable' in the same way aircraft parts are supposed to be. I also suspect that the UP's choice of locomotive reflected knowledge that a complete teardown and recondition was going to be conducted in any event, but won't speculate on that.

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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:43 am 

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Do we have any kind of guideline, hard or otherwise, on where a 'cosmetic restoration' verges over from preservation to at least partial restoration?

Potential case in point: I recall that at least some mechanical work was done to PRR 460, in addition to the visible cosmetics. Such work would count, at least to me, as 'restoration' rather than mere 'preservation' as it actively improves the 'original fabric as found' The case is a bit less clear for periodic rolling of roller bearings to minimize fretting corrosion, changing journal pads and oil or filling pits, etc. but I think it is still more than just 'preservation' in the strict sense I thought was being intended.

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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 4:21 pm 

Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 11:54 am
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Location: New Franklin, OH
To keep it straight in my head, I consider either cosmetic restoration to make it look good with maybe a bit of mechanical maintenance thrown in or full restoration to operation. Both, in my mind, are preservation.

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 Post subject: Re: Big Boy Steam Engine Slated For Restoration
PostPosted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 5:38 pm 

Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 pm
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Overmod wrote:
Quote:
"The Big Boy from Pomona was lubed and painted, and kept in good condition, yet it has required a complete tear down for the rebuild."


I suspect this was more dictated by the UP quality-management system, which requires full materials and condition analysis for all components so they are 'trackable' in the same way aircraft parts are supposed to be. I also suspect that the UP's choice of locomotive reflected knowledge that a complete teardown and recondition was going to be conducted in any event, but won't speculate on that.


UP has no quality management or parts tracking system for it's steam locomotives.


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