U.P. 844

This morning dawned rainy and cold. Rick took Isaiah to school as usual, and I was getting around a bit slow, when he came home I was still in my PJs, watching television.
“Do me a favor,” he says when he comes flying through the front door.
“What?” Rick never moves that fast, so I knew something was up.
“Throw on some clothes, we gotta train to catch.” He went for my shoes.
“What?” I asked again, at the risk of sounding stupid.
“The second largest steam locomotive ever made is coming through town any minute.”
Now, those of you who have known me for a while know that I LOVE trains. Rick does too. The main reason I loved my railroad taxi job was working with the trains.
I got dressed, in about 1 minute, and we flew down to the tracks. It looked like ¼ of Hicksville showed up to see it, even in the pouring rain. There were people with small American flags, and umbrellas. There was an air of excitement that the cold rain couldn’t damper.
Suddenly, in the distance, we heard it. Now, if you have never heard the whistle of an old steam engine, you are missing out. There is nothing as beautiful, or lonesome, as the whistle of a steam train. We saw it coming fast down the rails. It was pitch black, and shiny in the rain. It was pulling the President’s Train, the fancy Union Pacific passenger train still in use for the President of Union Pacific. We all waved, and the people in the passenger cars waved, and it was a beautiful thing.
I knew that I would love to see it, but I didn’t know how it would make me feel. I can’t even describe how it feels - I am still psyched!
It is a beautiful train.

“Weighing in at 500 tons, almost 120 feet in length and nearly two stories high... The locomotive is the second largest operating steam engine in the world and is owned by Union Pacific. It was used for pulling passenger trains.
Union Pacific bought the engine new in 1944 from the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, N.Y. as a coal fired engine then had it modified in 1946 to be oil fired. It was the last steam locomotive purchased by the Union Pacific and was produced at the end of the steam locomotive era.
""This is the real deal. It is the flag ship of the Union Pacific Railroad," said Reid Jackson, conductor for 844. "It's the state of the art for steam locomotives. It's a beautiful, awesome machine." The engine develops 5,000 horse power and on flat ground can easily pull 50 cars. It often traveled the speed limit of 90 mph and if it were behind schedule, 110 mph was not uncommon, Jackson said." (from the Pratt Tribune article by Gale Rose, HERE)
"No.844, also known as Union Pacific's "Living Legend," returned to service in 2005 after one of the most extensive steam locomotive overhauls in the United States since the 1950s. The work began in 2000 and affected its running gear, pumps, piping, valves and springs, along with replacement of its firebox and extensive boiler work. The cab interior was also refurbished. No. 844 was the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific Railroad and was delivered in 1944. A high-speed passenger engine, it pulled such widely known trains as the Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, Portland Rose and Challenger.

When diesel-electric locomotives took over all passenger train duties, No. 844 was placed in freight service in Nebraska between 1957 and 1959. It was saved from being scrapped in 1960 and held for special service. No. 844 has run hundreds of thousands of miles for UP's Heritage program." (link)

I found a couple of good pictures of it, so I thought I would put a couple of them here. The last one shows UP844 pulling the President's train, you can see it larger HERE.