Railworks America

Yaaa Hooo!

Can't imaging the amount of planning and engineering that had to go into this project to see it through to completion1 Amazing!

It's nice to see a major railroad actively involved in preserving it's heritage.

U.P. Big Boy 4014 is currently undergoing hydrostatic testing and passing with flying colors.

There is a video on Facebook showing steam coming out of one of the domes.

Whether you like the bigboy or not you got to appreciate just what has to be done to get a machine like that running again. Just figuring out a way to precisely mount a 1000lb steel bar isn't easy.

You can't just lay pieces of steel that big by hand and start tack welding them down.

Those poor old engineers back in the day in Schenectady had to hundreds of drawings like this by hand for every single locomotive they ever made like this one below.



Man what my life would be like without computers to do my technical drawings for me with a couple of mouse clicks...

4014 passed it's hydrostatic test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqBd_hQ ... e=youtu.be

Bonus footage
These are non listed videos I'm getting from the UP Steam Crew, so enjoy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCfaw1x ... e=youtu.be

Big Boy 4014's cab is coming together.

Steam schedule for Ogden.

https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/sched ... X9EtIiTHNg

It will be interesting to see how long the steam program survives under PSR.

AlcoFan wrote:It will be interesting to see how long the steam program survives under PSR.

It has nothing to do with PSR. UP has a long history of supporting their heritage and it would be highly unlikely they would abandon that. Their stock is doing well so they certainly aren't any pressure to stop this program. The company is so large that this program is a drop in the bucket and further it is run by a group that are not the bean counter type.

I wonder why Big Boy has a wood floor now. Wouldn't that be much more of a hassle to maintain?

So who is going to go see it?

I plan on driving there to see it in Ogden. I'm gonna go further east to catch it under load while climbing through the Wasatch mountain range hopefully. I'm hoping there is no late season snow. It will be my first steam train on my YouTube channel. I'm a diesel guy and not as big into steam, but this is that rare exception where I feel I just have to be there. I saw the Southern Pacific #4449 GS-4 as the American Freedom Train when it stopped in Santa Barbara in 1976. The only other steam engine I ever wished to see in person in operation was the Big Boy. Never thought in a million years it would ever come true, but pigs do fly sometimes. Along with my Amtrak trip over Tehachapi Pass last year, this also qualifies as must see bucket list materiel.

I just hope I can find some good shots along it's route that aren't filed with a bunch of railfans in the way. Hopefully no idiots film too close and get killed like last year. We don't need the trip canceled.

GSkid wrote:So who is going to go see it?

I just hope I can find some good shots along it's route that aren't filed with a bunch of railfans in the way. Hopefully no idiots film too close and get killed like last year. We don't need the trip canceled.

Never doubt Darwin's old words of wisdom. Especially with something bound to draw as much attention as the 4014. Hopefully we're wrong but you just never know anymore.

I tend to be of the belief that people go a little too crazy over UP stuff (and NS stuff on the east coast) but it is amazing how you rebuild a machine where just about every piece of it requires a forklift or a crane to move. Not exactly as simple as putting together an erector set.

I would love to see it in person but living on the east coast, just getting to Chicago alone is a hassle let alone anything further west. I guess all of the thousands of videos that will end up around the internet will do.