Union Pacific Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Ogden UT May 10 2019

[John E Davies]

Any steam train nuts here? Do you plan to go to see the newly restored Big Boy freight hauler and also this wonderful Living Legend high speed passenger locomotive? Skip ahead to 11:00 minutes if you like and watch to the end as they run it really fast.

 

 

 

I hope to see these fine machines steaming someday, I am not sure I can make the big event in Utah.

 

https://spike150.org

 

https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[SeaDawg]

Thanks, John! One of my uncles is a steam train guy... I will send the info on to him.

His train models pretty much fill their basement hobby room...

 

Sherry

 

[topgun2]

There is a very nice Museum of Transportation - https://transportmuseumassociation.org/  - located just west south west of Saint Louis.  They've got a bunch of old trains there if you happen to be in that area.

 

Bill

[Trainman]

I will have nothing to do with trains, well maybe a little bit now and then.

 

 

 

trainman

[John E Davies]

I will have nothing to do with trains, well maybe a little bit now and then.

 

trainman

Well, we all see your avitar, but do you mess with HO stuff or the real deal? Do you travel just to watch? I keep seeing a guy out in the middle of rural WA in the weirdest places filming Burlington Northern freight trains, I guess that is a special fetish....

 

My dad was an Englishman who grew up in pre-WW2 Yorkshire during the Age of Steam, he often told stories of him as a youngster rushing out onto a bridge so he could be enveloped in ash and steam as the train went underneath..... I am kind of interested, but not that obsessed.

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

 

 

[rideandfly]

John,

 

We converted the Bellevue Ohio roundhouse with turntable into a Maintenance of Way Equipment shop during the 80s.

 

Steam engine folks always wanted to used one of our bays for maintenance during the winter. The 490,000 pound N&W 611 J class used our turntable to come into the shop for the winter. Steam Engine folks wanted to bring the N&W 1218 into the shop too, but at over 900,000 pounds we would not let them cross the turntable. Historical groups loved to visit the shop, discuss shop history, and see the turntable operate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John E Davies]

The Big Boy 4014 and the Living Legend 844 locomotives are in Utah. I can’t make this Golden Spike event but I hope to see one or both sometime this summer. They plan to drive them all over the Union Pacific system to display in cities and towns across the West. I’m not sure if they will continue to travel together as they are for this big anniversary event.

 

https://kjzz.com/news/local/big-boy-locomotive-arrives-in-utah-for-150th-anniversary-of-transcontinental-railroad

 

https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.

 

State by state guide...

 

https://www.up.com/aboutup/usguide/index

 

Please, if you have an Ollie and plan to travel to see these locomotives, post a thread and maybe we can make a mini Ollie Steam Event out of it.

 

BTW if you haven’t already watched Hell on Wheels, do so. It is excellent, tells the embellished story of the Union Pacific, and the last season includes the meeting of the east and west lines. I think all five seasons are on Netflix, but I bought all the dvds...

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[Trainman]

Thanks John, I did watch a video on 4014 that was done on 5-4-2019, I would say it was a Shake Down Ran to check all systems. As my name says, "trainman" you can assume I like trains, I'm a model railroader. My modeling buddy is a retired Union Pacific engineer, so he keeps me informed on the real stuff. I also have another modeling buddy here in Ft. Worth that models Ogden, UT, 1958 time period, his layout is all to scale and is perfectly done. I will probably have to wait for the 4014 to come to Ft. Worth on its travels around the U.S. to see it. I'm a D&RGW Narrow Gauge model railroader, so if it's going to Durango, or Chama I could be there tomorrow. Thanks again John for this post, it would be really nice to be there for the big event, I will now watch the video's that you posted.

 

 

 

trainman

[Rumline]

My dad and I are both train buffs, and my son is in training.  "YOU WILL LIKE IT!!!!"  Just kidding.  But really, we look for steam trains to ride wherever we travel.  Thanks for posting this info as I hadn't heard about it previously.  I'm going to try very hard to make it to Cheyenne on the 19th.

[Raspy]

Here's a great documentary about trying to hit 100 MPH on the way to Yorkshire with "Tornado" pulling a full passenger train.  It is amazing they'll stay on the track at that speed.  The old train engineers and enthusiasts are pushing it to the limit as the firemen shovel and the engineer opens it up.  Looking for stretches of track with no speed limits and enough range to see what she'll do.   Love it.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJTljCZNCqc&frags=pl%2Cwn

[John E Davies]

John, thanks, I had not seen your video. Here is one for you, a most excellent story of the restoration of Flying Scotsman.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sOc5MsEUOAA

 

That’s one that my dad used to watch as a lad from the overpass in rural Yorkshire, outside of Doncaster, in the 1920s and ‘30s. He got to see it again much later in his life in Scotland and it really made his day to see it once again flashing through the countryside. He was staying at a small B&B and did not even know that there were tracks out beyond the fields behind the old house. He was having tea outside at a small table when the Flying Scotsman came into view. As he told me, he was “completely gobsmacked”.

 

And this is a must watch, it isn’t all steam, it’s a bunch of antique oil engine start-ups... The last one is like something out of a Rube Goldberg nightmare on LSD.... If you have young kids around, show them that last engine running. It’s a hoot.

 

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA