"UP #4018 'BIG BOY' is GOING to move this SUNDAY" says Museum of the American Railroad!!!!!

Skip Waters
Dallas, Texas

Read Facebook post below:

Movement of the Museum of the American Railroad's Union Pacific steam locomotive #4018 to Frisco is confirmed for this Sunday, July 21st. A departure time from Fair Park has not been established at this time. Staff will post periodic updates to the Museum's Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/HistoricTrains ) throughout the day as the Big Boy makes its way northward.

Our sincere thanks to the Railroads for their continued support in this historic move.

The Museum of the American Railroad receives numerous inquiries about the moves to Frisco each day. We will make every effort to provide advance information about each equipment move. Please keep in mind that these moves are at the convenience of the railroads and may occur with little prior notice. A master schedule for the entire collection move does not exist. For general updates, visit the Museum’s website http://www.HistoricTrains.org and click on “The Big Move – Rolling Stock” under the “Frisco” tab. For specific updates on train movements, visit the Museum’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/HistoricTrains

As with every equipment move, please remember that while the Museum of the American Railroad looks forward to sharing this historic event with members, stakeholders, and the community at large, it must be done from a safe distance. Safety and security are of the utmost importance. As periodic updates are provided by the Museum, we are in no way inviting the public to enter railroad property or board rail equipment at any time during the move. Violations will be considered trespassing and interfering with interstate commerce.

The Museum asks you respect the personal, private property of surrounding homeowners and businesses. Please keep off any private property around the Museum's Fair Park and Frisco sites.

We are greatly indebted to the host railroads for their generosity and support of the Museum's move to Frisco. We share their concern for maintaining a safe environment, and a minimum of disruption of service to their customers. Our sincere thanks to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Dallas, Garland & Northeastern Railroad, and the Trinity Railway Express for making these moves possible.

Big Boy move today has been cancelled!

At the last minute, one of the railroads was not ready to accept the Big Boy on their rails. Therefore, the Big Boy was put back in the hole and instead they hope to move the Santa Fe painted F7 today to Frisco. This is a big disappointment to everyone who came out to see the move....but until everyone is onboard, the Big Boy waits to move another day.

Skip Waters
Reporting from Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

P.S. We did get to see it move back into it's resting spot at Fair Park.

This is turning into a giant clusterhump for the folks responsible for moving her. It's not like they don't have anything else to do.

The Museum of the American Railroad people say it was a concern with the need to wye the locomotive... Facebook post below.

Due to last minute concerns arising from the need to wye the Big Boy in Southeast Dallas, today's move of the engine has been postponed. The Museum's Santa Fe F-7A diesel locomotive and two storage boxcars will move to Frisco instead. Departure of these three pieces from Fair Park is expected shortly. More details to follow regarding a rescheduled Big Boy move. We will continue to post updates on today's move of the F-7A and boxcars.

Pure speculation:
Does anyone know if the orientation of 4018 was such that it was planned all along to be moved in reverse? If so, perhaps the on-scene officials, previously unaware of this little morsel, nixed it.

That in turn could be the reason for a seemingly unexpected wye move and delays while the route to and from as well as the wye itself need to be inspected and measured.

Steve

Although I do not know for sure... it does appear that to wye the locomotive was a surprise to the host railroad involved and they want to do an additional mechanical inspection of their own before allowing such a move. The Big Boy needs to be wyed at some point so it will fit into the new location. There are two places to do it, but the first is the preferred location in southeast Dallas.

Discussion over on TO includes an explanation from someone whose moniker implies he or she is a BNSF dispatcher: Someone failed to let UP know.

Here is the link but this will remain valid for non members only while it's on the first page of that section. So I will quote:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/r ... 10,3133611

We have to talk to UP to make these moves but according to them, they were not given the proper notice needed to run the locomotive which required an inspection by UP Mechanical personnel and MOW forces to verify it would be able to wye at Miller. Also the fact that the move would've been during the time of the day when many hotshot Z trains and Amtrak trains 21 and 22 are in the area, UP rejected the engine because they did not get the proper notification to prepare their traffic on the Dallas Sub.

----

Is the railroad at the museum gate the DGNO? Because they're doing the move until it is handed off to BNSF, including moves over UP and Trinity Railway Express.

Although the Big Boy move ended up being cancelled at the last minute. I did get to see it move a little.

Watch and enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6f_Moi ... YoqHBpJMvA

Skip Waters
Dallas, Texas

Watched the video and noticed that the valve motion had been disconnected. Since the mechanical lubricators are driven by the valve motion will this cause a problem with lubrication during the move?

That's a good question and I don't know the answer. Mr. Scott Lindsey is the man in charge of prepping the loco and making sure it rolls safely to Frisco... so I would assume he has worked out a plan for lubrication during the move.

What is it you would like to lube with the valve gear disconnected and no piston motion due to cut rods? The crossheads? Read on.

From a posting on another site:

The old lubrication lines where removed and they were replaced by two small steel bottles that were threaded into the old holes. The small steel bottles can probably hold around 2 quarts of oil that were filled from the top. I believe they are just gravity feed through a small hole in the cross head. If you look closely in the videos you can see them. They are only about a foot tall.

Steve

Movement of Big Boy #4018 to Frisco has been re-scheduled for Sunday, August 4th.

---Facebook page

Most of you may already know this... but here it is again. The August 4th Big Boy 4018 move has been delayed. See museum announcement below.

Skip Waters
Dallas, Texas

Hello Everyone,

We have just confirmed that the Big Boy move for this Sunday has been cancelled due to maintenance on a segment of the TRE trackage.

Here is a link to the update on the Museum’s webpage: http://www.museumoftheamericanrailroad. ... pdate.aspx

We will certainly keep everyone posted as we are able to determine a new move date.

Thanks,

Museum of the American Railroad
http://www.historictrains.org