What if the UP had this? Pictures now added

What? Don

Is it tomorrow yet?  

 

I can't hold my breath for much longer. I'm starting to turn blue, and I don't look good as a Smurf. 

No, not yet, its "today" today. Its not tomorrow till tomorrow.

I will tune in to see what you post.  I know they looked at several different alternatives, but I have read that given the success of the Challengers, they felt the Big Boy was the safest option and I would certainly agree it worked out well for them.

I'm watin'

Inquiring minds waiting...

I'm waiting for the mail, so soon very soon.

A "teaser", I love it.

I am turning extremely blue ............

 

Pictures added

Y would they want that when they have the Big Boy?

 

Rick

I have an EM-1, too.  I like it, but if I had to pick, I'd rather have the Big Boy.

I have a big boy to and Rickc it is just a what if. 

Dave,

I really like it!  It looks great, glad you went outside the norm and did something original.  

 

When you mentioned this in another thread I was trying to picture what it may look like.  Now I know!

 

It'll look great pulling a long coal drag...

Very nice. Enjoy.

Well you have a point, any big, fast loco look good, often better, when its UP.  I've done a bunch myself.  It is good looking as you did it.

Hate to point this out, but wrong typeface.  UP's is very distinct. (Compare the lettering on the tender with the lettering on the caboose)

 

This is one of my pet peeves when manufacturers do this - steam era rolling stock with a mid-century typeface like Helevetica.

It looks okay to me. The EM-1 looks good like that.

 

I've use the same font as david1 did when I repaint locos in UP and consider it a satisfactory substitute - not perfect,but not enough to stand in the way of a good conversion project. On the N&W J below, I used vinyl Helvetica as a reverse stencil (applied before the yellow was sprayed over them and removed them when it was still wet).  The second loco is a Legacy Southern Crescent repainted black and with white Helvetica vinyl letters. 

This was the Southern Crescent before repainting.  

 

 

Mr. Otto Jabelmann is probably spinning in his grave!

Nope, since the EM-1 was designed to burn far better coal than what was available on the western/mountainous portions of the Union Pacific system.

       
       


Looks good to me a that is all that counts

Glad you like it;  it's just one of those things that drives me up the wall!

 

Of standard typefaces, Futura is probably closest, but Railfonts has a "City Of" font that was designed after the UP type:

 

 

Oh Lee your killing me.....

Yea your right but I really can't tell the difference between the fonts you posted. Maybe it's my eye sight but the difference is so little it's hard for me to tell. 

I would think that Mr. Jabelmann was so brilliant he would have found a way to make it work. 

 

But I do repeat this whole exercise is a what if not that it should have. 

No, he wouldn't have bothered since the EM-1 2-8-8-4 had only 64 inch diameter drive wheels, and the Union Pacific Railroad was interested in a "fast freight" steam locomotive. That is why the 3900 class 4-6-6-4 locomotives had 69 inch drive wheels, and the 4000 class locomotives had 67/68 inch drive wheels. An EM-1 would have been simply too slow for them, even if they could get it to burn that Wyoming Hanna Coal!

I can;t tell enough difference to really care, either, but I suppose a "rivet counter" could: to each his own (font).

 

I'd use any of them if none of the others was available.  If all were, I'd use city of although I might be tempted to "shave" Futura.  It has a nice look otherwise.

You do realize that the UP lettering and numbering on their steam locomotives is NOT white, but aluminum color? THAT is much more noticeable than the "font", in my opinion.

The EM1 was purpose designed specifically for the B&O, and more than that, she was specifically designed for the B&O in the circumstances of the day...1944-'45.  She was and is, a vastly underrated and under appreciated piece of locomotive architecture. Keep in mind, B&O would have gone for EMC/ EMD FT Diesels, had they been available in the proper time frame.  The EM1 was designed to give the operating dept. the best possible balance between cost and performance....and was expected to be what amounted to a coal burning Diesel, of sorts, when assessing the bottom line. Given the wealth of Diesel operating knowledge B&O had assimilated by that time, and their cumulative steam experience....Best and Only was able to work with Baldwin to engineer an absolute masterpiece....given the parameters.  Now this can be said of any steamer to a degree, but for B&O, there was precious little wiggle room.  UP could and did go for the Big Boy....for many of the same reasons C&O went for the Allegheny.  They could afford to live with it !

And it wouldn't stop with gigantic reciprocating steam. Both UP and C&O played with steam turbines, and Uncle Pete went over the top with a big GTEL fleet !

When one lives in iron ore country such as myself they have a tendency to be fans of the DM&IR's Baldwin Yellowstones. These locos actually produced more tractive effort than the Big Boy at 140,000 ft/lbs compared to the 135,000 of the Big Boy. I also bought the EM-1 lionel made in DM&IR, it looks a little weird with the beige boiler and no centipede thender but I like it none the less. Both my MTH Yellowstone and the EM-1 are a bit out of place with my mostly UP equipment but they are sweet locos. Your UP version looks sharp, did you put a sheild on the nose?

Matt,

 

no shield yet but that is in the works.

Yellowstones were very cool, I agree.  I have one and love it.

 

As to the "silver" lettering.  Well, my Up H7 3595 has silver letters and numbers:

•  All the others are white, both MTH and Lionel, of course, they could be wrong . . .
• But . . . in 1954, at age 5, in a trainyard near Provo, UT, I stood next to a UP Challenger or Big Boy - I don't remember which except it had allotof great big wheels, that my Dad explained the articulated nature, that it bent, and it was huge, and it radiated heat even though we were not that close.  It had white Union Pacific lettering on the tender and loco .  I think I would have known the difference: silver is pretty easy to tell.  ATSF had silver, the UP I saw had white.

Frankly, I know, I was five . . . my memory could be faulty.  But all but one of my Vision, Legacy, and Premier locos is white lettering: so on my layout - UP is white. 

I think it looks great either way.

 

It is a nice addition to your UP fleet and again, I really like it.  

 

You certainly have a lot of big UP steam. This fits right in.

 

Looks like white lettering to me.  The first photo was taken at Odgen, Utah and the second is of 844 at Sacramento, CA.

 

 

It may look like white to you, but neither 844, nor 3985, nor 4014 have white lettering & numerals.

Like I said, I remember as a kid white letters and numbers - but it was a long time ago (1954ish).

 

Anyway, I will be sticking with white.  The lettering on all but two of my Vision, JLC, MTH Premier, and Legacy models is white.  Only on my H7s are the letters and numbers silver.  So I when I repaint a black loco and re-letter it UP I have and will use white.  I'm not trying to match the prototype, but rather match my other models (they all sit on a shelf together sort of in order of time-first-placed-in service).

Interesting David. The Northern Pacific designed, developed, and ran the first Yellowstone locomotives. The Z-5 class was the largest locomotive of its day. The UP challenger and Big Boy did not exist at the time. Why the UP did not order a Yellowstone is beyond me. I believe they were designing/ building their own class of engines at that time, like the 2-8-8-0 bull moose. Maybe they had left over engines that they purchased like the Y-3 and H-7 that they didn't have the need. 

The EM1 really is not a Yellowstone, its a modern version and unique class of 2-8-8-4.

Why Lionel slaps different road names on engines that did not exist, I guess is to broaden their market and sales. 

I like your version of the EM-1, if your going to have fun, then just do it.

I was hoping Lionel would make a version of the Bull Moose.

 

 

As far as the tender letters white vrs Aluminum. 

If I close my left eye and squint with my right. I think I can see the Aluminum oxide silver in them...?