@superwarp1 posted:

She will run again but not for the UP.

Does Mr. Sandburg's operation have THAT much money????  Remember that many, MANY components have been removed from 3985, including the tender, and are now on 4014.

Railroading Heritage of Midwest America, Union Pacific agree to donation of Challenger, other locomotives, cars

@Hot Water posted:

Does Mr. Sandburg's operation have THAT much money????  Remember that many, MANY components have been removed from 3985, including the tender, and are now on 4014.

Forgive me if I violate terms with this quote.

"RRHMA has already lined up significant financial commitments for the rebuilding of the two steam locomotives, with a founding grant from John J. Gray, who established his “UP in Smoke Foundation” to fund historic preservation of UP steam locomotives. It will be setting up a two-for-one matching donation program, with every dollar pledged matched with two dollars by other donors."

pulled from the article.

It will be interesting to see what tender the UPRR donated along with 3985.

@J 611 posted:

It will be interesting to see what tender the UPRR donated along with 3985.

Most likely 4014's.  There's no reason to swap them as 4014's old tender needs work to bring it up to current requirements.

Rusty

Awesome! Sounds like a great situation.

4014/3985/844 together some day? UP trackage? Iowa Interstate trackage? Shows at the Silvis complex?

Some good steam restoration things are happening around the country. Reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

The main thing is 3985 will be in the hands of a group willing to restore 3985 again- and ALOT of people love 3985, so she will eventually be running again someday.

Geno

The article stated that 4014 is the "world's largest steam locomotive".   It should have read "world's largest currently operational steam locomotive."    As the real grand daddy is the 2-6-6-6 __________________________.         

Ans: Same as this posters profile name. 

This is exciting to hear about. I like big steam. I'm just as excited about the big diesel!!!

I've never ridden up front on either. I think someone's going to have a great job operating them. I hope it happens.

Of course, the first thing is this equipment has to do is get down to Silvis.

I wonder if they're going to be able to move the 2-10-2 on it's own wheels (I doubt it's got roller bearings) or have to take it apart like the 643 and ship it as a kit.  It might be too tall to ship on a flat car in one piece, unless there's a depressed center flat out there with about a 55' deck.

But, I'm just speculating...  Shipping it for the pro's to decide.

Rusty

@Allegheny posted:

The article stated that 4014 is the "world's largest steam locomotive".   It should have read "world's largest currently operational steam locomotive."    As the real grand daddy is the 2-6-6-6 __________________________.         

Ans: Same as this posters profile name. 

The B&O EM-1 weren't no slouch either!

Neither of you two guys are close. The really "largest and most powerful" steam locomotive ever built was the DM&IR Yellowstone!

Well, I hope it turns out well for 3985 if nothing more to honor those who originally got her running to the great peop6who care for her until the current group at UP came along. The Challengers are my favorite UP steamers.

Just curious would a tender swap with another static Challenger that is already setup for oil be better than converting the 4014 tender?

@Rusty Traque posted:

Of course, the first thing is this equipment has to do is get down to Silvis.

I wonder if they're going to be able to move the 2-10-2 on it's own wheels (I doubt it's got roller bearings) or have to take it apart like the 643 and ship it as a kit.  It might be too tall to ship on a flat car in one piece, unless there's a depressed center flat out there with about a 55' deck.

But, I'm just speculating...  Shipping it for the pro's to decide.

Rusty

I know that when Reading 2100 got shipped to Cleveland it was just on a heavy duty flat car, not one with a depressed center. Some photos here https://www.americansteamrailr...org/photos-2100-asr/ because their website is a pain to link an individual photo. Although I think it was a close thing not because of overall height but because of the center of gravity.

So these guys are out in Illinois somewhere? Not too familiar with where it is because I haven't looked up it on the map. I wonder how much life was left in the boiler, good to know though that they have facilities to be able to work on it if they have to do so.

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

So these guys are out in Illinois somewhere? Not too familiar with where it is because I haven't looked up it on the map. I wonder how much life was left in the boiler, good to know though that they have facilities to be able to work on it if they have to do so.

Silvis, IL is far western Illinois. Close to Davenport, Iowa. It’s interesting that so much UP “heritage” equipment is being sent off line, to a museum that doesn’t exist yet. The Silvis shop is pretty huge, but I hope it’s still in good shape. NRE may not have done much maintenance recently since they knew they were leaving. The NRE shop tracks were used for storage, not active switching. Maybe a lot of work for a museum staff that doesn’t exist yet. The turntable and roundhouse were torn down eons ago by Rock Island.

Is something wrong with DD40X 6936 that UP is getting rid of it? Why not toss out the E’s too if wheel sets are so hard to find?

@naresar posted:

I know that when Reading 2100 got shipped to Cleveland it was just on a heavy duty flat car, not one with a depressed center. Some photos here https://www.americansteamrailr...org/photos-2100-asr/ because their website is a pain to link an individual photo. Although I think it was a close thing not because of overall height but because of the center of gravity.

thanks for sharing those pics.

@TexasSP posted:

Well, I hope it turns out well for 3985 if nothing more to honor those who originally got her running to the great peop6who care for her until the current group at UP came along. The Challengers are my favorite UP steamers.

Just curious would a tender swap with another static Challenger that is already setup for oil be better than converting the 4014 tender?

The only other challenger in the world, is on display in North Platte, Nebraska, and that was the "loner" of the tender oil bunker for 3985, when she was converted to oil burning, back in 1989/1990. Thus, there is no way to put an oil bunker back into the tender from 4014, since 4014 now has the converted/overhauled tender from 3985. Best guess would to use the coal tender from 4014, and return 3985 back to coal burning.

Also, the bigger issue for returning 3985 back to service would be the FRA mandated 15 year inspection, plus all new superheater units (which were sent to scrap by the current manager), and replacement of all the various necessary appliances that have been removed for 4014.

This is the Silvis, IL main shop building. That’s not the end of that shop building to to the left. It’s huge. All the tracks to the right, you should see them in the summer! Actually, you can’t see them hidden under the weeds.

From another angle. There’s a lot of track between here and the shop building.

@Hot Water posted:

Well hate to hear that and forgot about the scrap issue.   Many other things I could say but it would rile up the sensitive folks on here.