To All,

The UP steam crew has taken some criticism by some but I want to express what I saw that is right with the program today. I had the opportunity to see the crew deal with public relations At Wells and Elko, Nevada on their WB journey to Sacramento and at Wells and Montello, Nevada on the return journey today. The crew was friendly and engaging with the public. They made people feel welcome and gave their employer some good PR. It is not easy to get people to engage people they do not know but several crew members were busy doing that. In these small towns it seems like there is nothing going on. For one or two days the UP steam crew gave the towns something positive to talk about and improved UP’s image in those towns. I want to publicly congratulate the crew on their efforts.

Sincerely,

Robby Peartree

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Other than the challenges they had in Texas, from what I have heard, the 844 is running flawlessly..a testament to the crews who run and maintain her.

I don't think anyone has questioned/criticized the professionalism of the crew members or how they comport themselves with the public.

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Perhaps not on any of the forums you frequent, but I've seen that happen or have seen it mentioned on a few boards, and most of it comes from foamers and other idiot life forms who don't have a clue (not surprisingly, the incident with 844 in Texas brought out quite a few of the dolts).

Since rails including former members of the steam team were among those raising questions about what happened that resulted in sliding the drivers, referring to all of them as dolts seems inappropriate.

One can appreciate the efforts expended, both human and monetary, by the crews and the railroad, to keep the program going and still ask questions when something unusual happens.

Steve