This month we take you on a tour of our multiple locations and projects across the USA.

Golden Spike NHS - Promontory, Utah: Wasatch is performing the 15 year inspections on Central Pacific Jupiter and Union Pacific No. 119 located at Promontory, Utah. The work is being done in the National Park's locomotive shed on location. The boilers have been stripped down, inspected and are now ready for reassembly. New couplings are being installed as well as few new changes to the boilers for ease of maintenance and long-term care. Richard Carroll and his team have done a great job taking care of No. 119 and the Jupiter. It has been an honor serving them. This project will wrap up in a few weeks with the installation of new boiler jackets and paint and then test operations in May.

In addition to the boiler work, Wasatch is also casting, machining and preparing a new pony truck wheels for the Jupiter. These new cast steel wheels will be installed in the locomotive to replace a wheel that is failing as a result of casting flaws. These new cast steel wheels will replace the old cast iron wheels.



Mare Island, CA: Wasatch will be involved in a long term painting project for a number of customers. This project also includes replacements or roofs on a few passenger cars and travel to Canada for field work as well. Major field painting projects now account for well over half of the annual income stream for Wasatch. Here we see a few cars having new side seals (car bodies) installed. The cars will then be repainted and delivered to the customer.



Big South Fork Scenic Railway - Stearns, KY: We are working with staff and volunteers to finish the K&T 14. The heavy boiler work is finished and we will be performing multiple hydrostatic tests on the boiler next week. The boiler will then be mounted on the frame. Once mounted a steam test will take place and then the jacket and cab will be installed. This locomotive has a brand new tender as well as a new boiler interior. Yes, indeed, some folks have passed around pictures of a mistake that was made while installing the new firebox. That section of the firebox was removed and replaced. We thank those of you for posting pictures of our projects and mistakes without our permission. Wasatch seems to be the only contractor in the industry who has ever made a mistake ! :-) We make mistakes, we learn, we fix and we move on. K&T 14 should see operations in 2015.


Swan Ranch - Cheyenne, WY: It is hoped that Wasatch will break ground on a new freight car repair facility as early as April of 2015. This new facility will have six repair bays as well as a full welding and fabrication section of the shop. The new 3,000 sq. foot office space includes a board room and executive offices. If you would like more information about this building, or if you would like to read a copy of our 2014 Annual report, please contact me personally with a private message . Wasatch is growing at an excellent rate, and we continue in our plans to expand our locations, services, and skills to a variety of mainline operations as we continue to serve the historic rail industry as well.

Facebook:

More pictures of these projects can be found on our Facebook page. Look us up, like us, and follow us for more updates from Wasatch Railroad Contractors.

https://www.facebook.com/Wasatch.RR.Contractors

A couple of concept pictures of the Swan Ranch facility.

Having received many PM's about this post, I would like to comment in public in response.

Last year while attending TRAIN/ARM I was asked by a number of my competitors, all of whom I view as friends and valued associates, about the "pictures" they saw regarding some torch cut holes in the firebox of the K&T 14. I did not ask who the source of the pictures was nor where the pictures were seen. To be honest, I do not take stock in looking up, nor talking about the mistakes of others. I do however understand that many enjoy the opportunity to rub in ones face a mistake. I shrugged off the questions and comments about the mistake at the time. Point is; (to those of you who have asked off line "who did it?") I have no idea who did it, I saw the pictures, we fixed the situation and I could care less who sees it at this point. I am not on a "man hunt" for whom ever decided to share the pictures. I fully understand what motivates people to do stuff like that and I simply don't participate. I am simply pointing out that I am very much aware of the mistakes that we have made and will make in the future. Companies the size of ours (30-50 employees) will make mistakes and these mistakes will be seen from time to time.

The Jupiter and the 119 remain in Utah at the National Park engine house. The shop staff and full time employees of the facility have been great to work with!

Our hope is to have our new Swan Ranch facility open by September 2015. As of this writing, we are about three weeks behind in terms of final selection of construction company and sub contractors. We all feel that we still stand a very good chance of being open by September 2015. Our original opening day goal was/is July 4, 2015.

Yes, our facility will be able to handle inbound steam locomotives. No, Union Pacific has not contacted us about contract work on their steam locomotives at our shop. It is noted however that our new shop will interchange directly with UP and BNSF. This ability was a selling point for us as it allows us to bring cars in on UP and send them out on the BNSF or the other way around. We also have access to two very large wye's.

Have we been asked to go back to UP? I am not at liberty to discuss this topic. There are many changes taking place at UP in terms of the steam shop. Time will tell how these changes will play out. I suspect that not too much more will change until the pending legal actions are fully resolved. As far as I understand, there is no near solution to these situations. I could very well be wrong on that matter.

That about covers the vast number of PM's I have received. Thank you all for the notes. I will also respond off line to each note.

Kindly,

John.
Thank you for the very open and honest message. It is refreshing to see and I commend you on it.

Ira Schreiber

Thank you for sharing the news of your work, especially the work on the Golden Spike engines. Hope to come out west in the not too distant future and see these remarkable replicas!

Regards,

Joshua

John;

Granted, I'm not much of a mechanic or machinist. However, from what I've seen of your work, I would not hesitate to recommend your shop to anyone looking to have work done on railroad equipment of any type or size. We all make mistakes. It's the overall results that matter. Thanks for running a class act.

John,

First of all thanks for the updates. You'r communication is very candid and informative. The growth of your business speaks for itself. I know many of us here really enjoy the photos, videos, and narrative you share with us.

Thanks,

John -

Appreciate your updates. Especially happy to hear about the progress being made on K&T #14 (Union Railroad #77) and the fact that it looks like she will be ready to run later this year. Quick question; when the 0-6-0 was in service on the Morehead & North Fork, she kept her 77 number plate and had the number 14 painted over it. Is she going to keep that number plate on the Big South Fork Scenic? Thanks for any info you can provide on that little bit of history.

Les

I'll wager it's not like the people who started projects that Wasatch had to finish didn't have any mistakes in them before Wasatch was ever on the scene.

My own understanding is that particular plate cracked, broke, or maybe "walked off" some years ago and a new one will have to replace it.

Re: K&T 14

As of 2004 I had personally took the #77 number plate (cracked), builder's plate, and whistle (SRR long bell three chime Ps-4) and put them in safe keeping at Stearns. I do not know anything since that date.

Pure speculation is a new #14 number plate, as well as reproduction builder's plate.

John and Mark -

Thanks for info.


Les

You might think about using T8 high bay fluorescents in the shop.

http://m.prolighting.com/t8hibayli.html

Even if those depicted are CFL high bays they still don't compare.

Cheers

Excellent update John,

Its great to watch a business grow and expand - especially in this day and age.

Best regards,

Terry

Thanks to the discussions about UP and lawsuits this thread is now locked.

At best they are rumor mongering. They mention names.

Randy