https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyJKqbvlNhg
Taken 3/3/18 at the Rocky Mountain Train Show Denver CO.
For those that are interested - Enjoy.

Watched it last night. Pretty good stuff. If anyone still has doubts about U.P.'s commitment to their three steam locomotives, they need to watch this.

I don't think anyone on this board has ever doubted UP's commitment to their steam program.

hasn't 844 or 3985 never been retired from service?

844 has remained on the active roster since the close of steam.
3985 was retired serviceable, along with 4023, indoors. Both were held in the roundhouse for something like 20 years before they were place outdoors as display items. The 4023 debacle has been discussed, and the locomotive is now irretrievable, however 3985 was found to still be in excellent shape and was run through the shops successfully, yada, yada, yada.

UP's current management sees the power of history and has made some excellent decisions as a "power" railroad, steeped in the legacy of "the biggest and best".

The 3985 was in excellent shape since she was only outside for four years (I'm not so sure she was retired serviceable though since she was missing stuff like her stoker auger, so I assume she was cannibalized during the final days of active UP steam in routine service). She was placed on display in early 1975 and work to restore her began in early 1979. Corrosion hadn't had much time to do significant damage.

Had she sat outside until 2015 or so in Cheyenne, I imagine she'd also have been suffering the effects of decades of weather just as the 4023 did after leaving the roundhouse in Cheyenne and going on display in Omaha in 1974 (Although I imagine Cheyenne's weather is more hospitable to a steam locomotive on outdoor display).

I'm no expert, but I doubt even the 4012 is "irretrievable" (Generally viewed as the Big Boy that's in the worst shape of the 8). But Union Pacific obviously wanted to keep the cost of an already expensive project down as much as they could, so going after one that hadn't suffered significant deterioration from the elements or damage like cut piston rods done to it was desirable.

Hello,

After watching the entire liked video at the start of this thread, I want thank all who take the time to post detailed overviews of this level on the forum. Whether it be directly or indirectly, the Strasburg Railroad, the WW&F, the T1 Trust, Rick Rowlands, the UP Steam Dept, the Fort Wayne group and many more I have not mentioned, for we commoners, who may not have the opportunity to inhabit this very interesting world of heavy steam locomotive restoration or repairs, a word of thanks for keeping the art alive!.....very, very informative!

Sincerely,

Randy

If you watched the video you saw where not only NEW parts for 4014 being shown off but new parts for 844 being shown off. He is getting new parts made for all 3 and is replacing worn out parts with stuff that is going to keep the big 3 in steam for another 100 years. New crossheads for all 3 have been ordered new valve guides new drawbars wrist pins from what I have heard crankpins and he wants axles and drivers for all 3 also for all mains plus new axles for the trailing and leading trucks. New high pressure piping for the steam lines new lubrication lines run new fittings on everything. New springs hell about the only thing they did not replace was the boiler on 844.

I guess its good to have unlimited resources. To me, all of this is like driving a carpet tack with a sledgehammer.

Good point Frisco. He couldn't spend enough on restoring the Big Boy to even become a rounding error on the UP's balance sheet. Last year the company made a $ 9 BILLION dollar profit before taxes etc. That's $ 9,000,000,000.00

You're so right, it sure must be nice to have that kind of financial horsepower behind you.

Let's all hope the Big Boy comes together well and when back under steam makes lots of new steam lovers !!

Ross Rowland

That's why they can afford to do things so perfectly. The rest of us have to make do with more limited resources. But in the end all our goals is to have a safe, operating, and reliable engine

According to previous posts and thyreads, 3985 got all new crankpins in 2008 or 2009 and hasn't run since 2010. 844 got new crankpins in 2010 and didn't run for 3 of tha past 8 years. 844 got new drawbars in 2011 or 2012. Both got all new springs in the late 1990's.

Do these parts usually wear out that quickly?

I'd like to hear about this debacle on 4023? I know some stuff but maybe there's more that I don't know. Thanks

In about 2004, 4023 was pulled from its last display and sitting in Omaha Union Station on rails needing only servicing to go home to Cheyenne. Geniuses step-in and decide to place the locomotive on top of a hill they would need to create which would overlook I-80. BTW, the hill would be in a Botanical Garden. No matter, excavate a hillside and create a mini mount Fiji somewhere else and create a cliff using wire baskets and ballast 20+ feet deep. Move all the power lines and traffic lights, buy and destroy houses on all street corners and drive a Big Boy up said hill on hundreds of tires. Push and drag it up there with bulldozers because it does not want to go. Don't cosmetically restore it in a shop first - do that in the garden. Luckily, The people who cosmetically restored it wire-wheeled the entire combustion chamber wrapper and painted it with Por-15, cleaned and prepped the boiler with passive ventilation, carefully cleaned and painted the front and backs of the rods so it is a contender for operation when it starts to look like a beached Titanic. It is a very nice locomotive - everything indicates it has no more than a break-in run or so after extensive work. The BN runs right below and it is soft silty dirt all the way down to the track - or go high profile and close a couple of lanes of I-80 and go down the Interstate. You might ask why it is there. Well, the UPRR likes to have evening parties at the Botanical Garden building, of course. Just wait a little longer until half those people retire from UP and the bid is $1M to do another cosmetic on that equipment. Then it's yours - Have fun, Matt Janssen - Foreman of the cosmetic job.

You can do lots of expensive things when you're a company that last year made $ 9,000,000,000.00 before taxes etc. That's as in $ 9 BILLION dollars. What was spent on getting the 4023 on that display perch is not even a rounding error.

Must be nice.

Ross Rowland