colorado hirailer posted:Yes..l HAD the attitude about it l had about a couple of eastern roads, and their rolling stock (that's all they babble about... don't bother me)....but this achievement, getting one of the largest in the world on the rails recovers some of my childhood experience, down at the station with steamers, when they were just part of the scenery. Wonder if trackage and bridges would allow this economy size loco east of Chicago? I hope the UP got its publicity money's worth, plus!, and other roads with no management interest in their own history take notice. Uh, such as in the New River Gorge. Picture THAT crossing the Hawks Nest Bridge, if it could safely do so. They'd need crowd control, for sure, if it got into populated east.
By and large, yes you could take it many places east of Chicago, with the proper planning as long as you stayed on the mainlines. There are some routes where you might find an issue, but you'd probably be surprised where it could go if someone really wanted to take it there. Remember, the east coast railroads had their fair share of very large articulated steam engines. The C&O Allegheny 2-6-6-6 was just as big as a UP 4000, and had heavier axle loadings, so it was more restrictive.
