Hello group, I've been a lurker here for a while, my freind Hayes Smith told me to speak up. I am 18(19 in a week)and volunteer at the New Hope Valley Railway(www.nhvry.org) in Bonsal, NC where I am a brakeman going on steam fireman if everything goes well with our vulcan 0-4-0T.

Does anyone have any information on SSW 819? What is this engine's excursion history? I've seen some pictures of her, a beautiful locomotive but I heard UP isnt too keen on letting her run. Is this true? Just curious about this locos status.

PRR Under the Wires
NHV_17@yahoo.com

Basically you have it right...no running these days.
The engine was restored in Pine Bluff back in the mid-1980's, and would run an annual trip to Fordyce from Pine Bluff, and it operated a couple of trips to Tyler, Texas. Beyond that the other major trip was to St. Louis for the NRHS convention in 1990. I don't think it ran after that, or if it did, maybe one time.
Greg Scholl



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> Does anyone have any information on SSW 819?
> What is this engine's excursion history?
> I've seen some pictures of her, a beautiful
> locomotive but I heard UP isnt too keen on
> letting her run. Is this true? Just curious
> about this locos status.

819 last ran in 1993 on one of several trip to Tyler, TX. As Greg said, it also made trips to Fordyce, AR for a festival there, and a trip to St. Louis in 1990 for an NRHS convention.

Policy changes within Southern Pacific made it more difficult to run steam after that (even SP 4449 didn't run on SP after that), and UP has long-standing policy about other locomotives powering excursions on its railroad.

Interestingly, I'm told by a pretty reliable source that UP offered the 819 crew a chance to doublehead with 3985 on one of its trips through the area, and they declined (perhaps the locomotive was undergoing heavy maintenance, I don't know).

Should the group finish the work being done to make 819 comply with the new steam regs, there is always the opportunity to utilize BNSF trackage rights through Pine Bluff to get to Little Rock, St. Louis, or some other offline point. Pete Smykla has a collection of passenger cars stored in the area, and it sure would be nice to see 819 again.

JAC