First photo I've seen:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 279&nseq=0

First video:

http://www.rail-videos.net/video/view.php?id=9624

LOL (Links edited... )

/Brother Mitch

Also check out this thread on the Narrow Gauge Railroad Discussion Forum:

NNG Look what rolled into Denver

NNG = Non Narrow Gauge

Forgive me for not being a member of TrainOrders and desiring something a little bigger than postage-stamp-sized for photos/video links to share with others.

I was out early on private land south of Cheyenne, worth getting out of bed for definately. pics here......
http://mikepannell254.fotopic.net/c1901678.html

Mike Pannell
Car 57 project

Hmmm interesting.....you nitpicked another user for their post about an abandoned railroad tunnel not being about "preservation", yet technically this has even less to do with preservation. Why nitpick others about the rules when you can't follow them either?

It just keeps going and going and going.....

Just out of curiosity, could 3985 have handled that train on her own? I know a diesel would be spliced in for breaking, but was it also as a helper this time around considering I have seen video of three Dash-9's hauling this train on other roads.

Video from the helicopter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHif2nuICXU

See if this answers your question
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgHrDbN4EU

Seems a question answered!

Did anyone get a count on the Circus Train - passenger cars, flats, and
others?

/Mitch

See the comments at the YouTube video--the run of 3985 with an APL stack train was downhill for the most part, with a supposedly mostly empty-container train. As I recall, folks said that the short stretch seen in the video is the one place on that eastbound run where the train would have encountered any resisting grade. Frankly, until we get a situation where two identical trains are run with dynamometer cars behind 3985 solo and the usual diesel power (and let's contrast DC and AC power for fun), the answers of "could 3985 do this/equal two SDB95-8's?" will never be resolved to any hardcore foamers' satisfactions.

As for the RBBX train: I count 3985, tender, two water tenders, diesel, 4 UP cars, 35 RBBX passenger cars (including power car), five "elephant cars," and 21 TOFC cars. An epic passenger train, to be sure, but still light compared to a coal train, or even a trainload of loaded boxcars.

How about answering MY question, Alex? I'm very curious to know why you'd turn around and do the very thing you nitpicking others about.

Short answer:

Using a "preserved" UP mainline steamer in an attention-garnering way to gain publicity for not just the RBBB Circus but the UP steam program--and thus garnering the excuse to drag TV cameras, news choppers, and hundreds/thousands trackside to see that spectacle and garner UP steam (and thus steam in general) positive PR value--counts as promoting the cause of steam locomotive preservation as a whole, in my book. I would think any representatives of any museum or rail preservation project would kill for a publicity opportunity like that, no matter how "staged" it may be. (To fabricate another example, supposing they could have "used" a steam train to reopen the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.......)

I've watched video on YouTube from several other videographers who tried to take high quality video of this occasion and whose video was pretty much ruined by the selfish guy in the chopper flying constantly so low and near to the front of the train. Most of the other video only has helicopter noise where you should be hearing the 3985 working really hard. This is becoming a really bad trend, after the same thing happened at Trainfest in Owosso. If you can afford to charter a chopper, get a few good scenes and then let the rest of us who can't afford to, get our images from the ground.

I may be wrong, but from earlier posts, I believe the chopper was chartered by UP themselves to document this historical occasion and to provide footage for a new steam video