That's ah cool train...!

You know my grandpa worked for the Missouri Pacific railroad on a section gang. His house was 30 yards from the railroad track. I grew up with the sound of boxcars rattling down the line. This photo of my grandpa is just before he retired. This was the last section gang on the Missouri Pacific, Arkansas division, before the merger with Union Pacific. Grandpa is the big man in coveralls and orange MoPac helmet on the left. Big John Wilson, Jr.  They called him Junior but grandma called him June.

I was driving across Wyoming on the way home from college in the early sixties when I saw one of those locomotives running full steam with a freight train paralleling the highway. I hadn’t known the UP was stlll running them at the time.

I live about 30 miles from the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay and they have a restored 4017 inside where you can see it and climb up in the cab. It is one of the biggest pieces of machinery I have ever seen outside of a Iron Mine in the Michigan UP. It is massive and just walking around it is impressive. I would like to see the restored working locomomotive but missed my chance a few years ago when it was touring. If you get a chance stop by the museum and spend a few hours going through the restored pieces. They also have Gen. Eisenhower's WWII command train from Britain. Totally restored.

nationalrrmuseum.org/

If you are near Scranton, PA, a visit to Steamtown USA would be right up any train buffs alley. Big Boy 4012 is there along with dozens of other fine steam locomotives. But Steamtown used to be in Vermont, with dozens and dozens of locomotives, just stored in yards where you could climb and explore any of them unrestricted! Took my youngun's there long time ago, that instilled a love of trains in each of them!

nps.gov/stea/index.htm

I got a chance to see 4014 in person a few years ago! They brought her down to Hearne, TX a little while back.

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Originally posted by stanley_

I got a chance to see 4014 in person a few years ago! They brought her down to Hearne, TX a little while back.

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It came through my hometown of Poplar Bluff Missouri on it's way back out West.

I was working a jobsite in Erie PA and a railroad was behind it. One day people were gathering by the railroad just hanging out. Then when a train came through they all went crazy. Turns out they knew when a specific train was coming by and were waiting to get a glimpse of it. Must've been a special engine.

My brother Darren works at the Union Pacific fueling depot in Rawlins. This is part of the original Trans Continental Railroad.

In the upstate NY town I spent my early years was the D & H RR that ran under a vie dock close to town which at the time still used steam locomotives .
One of our early teen challenges among a few of us was a test of who really had stones between their legs by sticking their face over the edge of the railing just as the locomotive was coming out from underneath catching the stack blast about a few feet away from your face !
It was a bit more of a thrill than u might imagine !

Pretty cool Randy!!

I’m a 17 year conductor for BNSF, and always appreciate hearing stories about folks before me that worked for the railroad. I used to see MP locomotives running down the mainline in Grand Prairie, TX when I was a kid…but as you’ve said…they’re all gone now.

Pretty special that your brother gets to play with 4014. That’s one area where Union Pacific made a good move, preserving that locomotive and and touring the country…a great PR move. Too bad the other railroads don’t follow suit.

Either way…thanks for sharing with us. Anytime you want to talk about your grandpap….and railroad, please do!

How long did he work for the MP? And how long did he make it after he retired? Usually rails don't make it very long...especially trackmen. 

According to Sacramento tv news, 4014 is in Roseville on tour today.

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

I was driving across Wyoming on the way home from college in the early sixties when I saw one of those locomotives running full steam with a freight train paralleling the highway. I hadn’t known the UP was stlll running them at the time.

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Well....close Bill. The last Big Boy to run was in July 1959. And the last Challenger also July 1959...and that was the end of steam for the Union Pacific anyways. N&W used steam into 1960...and that was the last steam ever on a major railroad. 

Some smaller short lines used steam until 1964...and that was it...the steam era was over with. 

Late 50's....early 60's...same time frame though...it was a long way back to remember exact dates and times...heck...I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. :)

Dow

I think the "Final Spike Tour" is toot-fini: https://regina.ctvnews.ca/vintage-locomotive-the-empress-passes-through-saskatchewan-1.6956192

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Originally posted by Texican65

quote:

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

I was driving across Wyoming on the way home from college in the early sixties when I saw one of those locomotives running full steam with a freight train paralleling the highway. I hadn’t known the UP was stll running them at the time.

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Well....close Bill. The last Big Boy to run was in July 1959. And the last Challenger also July 1959...and that was the end of steam for the Union Pacific anyways. N&W used steam into 1960...and that was the last steam ever on a major railroad. 

Some smaller short lines used steam until 1964...and that was it...the steam era was over with. 

Late 50's....early 60's...same time frame though...it was a long way back to remember exact dates and times...heck...I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. :)

 

Dow

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Well, that's pretty much what I had thought, which is why I was surprised to see the engine and train that I did. No mistaking the sight nor the year*. It was the incongruity that struck me, and that's why I clearly remember it. Thoughts anyone?

*I have only driven across Wyoming a few times, the first in 1963. 

The Big Boys were retained in storage until 1961…in case of an increase in traffic and they might have been needed again, but they were never used...until the UP 4014 recently. A handful were saved and stored in museums and such...but in 1961…all the rest were scrapped.

What you probably saw was UP 844. It was the last steam engine delivered to the UP in 1944. It was saved from the torch and made excursion runs all throughout the 1960’s up until today. 844 is not a Big Boy...but none-the-less....BIG!

Great topic. Love steam engines and I found not only a good video on the 4014 but also on the Case 150 tractor.

I hope to see it on its path through Kansas, this time.
My first train ride, was when I was about 4 years old. My dad was predicting the age of passenger train transportation was closing in the Midwest. So he loaded me and my older brother onto a commuter train in Arkansas City, Ks. then followed the train in his car to Winfield, Ks-maybe a 15 mile ride. I was terrified! By then I had seen a fair share of train robbery cowboy movies.
On my bucket list is still a long train voyage in N. America, somewhere.
Brad

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Originally posted by Paulf

Great topic. Love steam engines and I found not only a good video on the 4014 but also on the Case 150 tractor.

 

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Sweet!

youtu.be/T1DlForsPP4?si=Airrs0oDiqLgc5u2

More steam train stuff.. :0)

I love these things.
I was in Germany in the Army and one day at the Frankfurt Banhof there was a working 16 wheel driver painted dark green, real fine German maintenance and clinkers hitting the rail bed
Thanks for posting.

I held a Class A boiler operator's license from KCMO when I was 23.  My mentor used to hop freights to go run those coal-fired tractors in the wheat fields when he was 19, then he would ride back home flush with summer cash.  

Paulf  Good job, nice work, warrior

I love trains and train songs. I remember the old steam trains from when I was a kid, loved hearing the whistle blast.
A few years ago I stopped in at the Railway Museum in Revelstoke, British Columbia just east of the site where they drove in the last spike in 1885 to complete the Canadian trans-continental railway (Canadian Pacific). I didn’t buy the T shirt but did get their memorial coin.

When I drove semi I'd always flash my headlights late at night when seeing oncoming trains near the highway,, they'd always flash back - brothers in freight-hauling , keeping each other awake. 

Traveling on the Big Boy from Elko to Carlin. July 8, 2024.

youtu.be/aLIevDFQidM?si=gs5zLrlIKRXabNpG

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I love trains and train songs. I remember the old steam trains from when I was a kid, loved hearing the whistle blast.
A few years ago I stopped in at the Railway Museum in Revelstoke, British Columbia just east of the site where they drove in the last spike in 1885 to complete the Canadian trans-continental railway (Canadian Pacific). I didn’t buy the T shirt but did get their memorial coin.

When I drove semi I'd always flash my headlights late at night when seeing oncoming trains near the highway,, they'd always flash back - brothers in freight-hauling , keeping each other awake. 

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Ya Chuck...I do that on the train too late at night when I see a lone 18 wheeler on the back roads and hwys at night...just another "night rider" earning a living...out there alone on the roads trying to stay awake. 

This locomotive oil can is from Missouri Pacific. I imagine the Big Boy needed lots of oiling.