Western Railroad Discussion > I'm sick of the 844...

…being gone. I’m sick of the lingering absence. I’m sick of the huge gaping hole in everybody’s collective hearts. I’m sick of not being to spin playful barbs about “that black smudge up front”
(that beautiful black beloved machine).

I’m sick of the pomposity. I’m sick of the shiftiness. I’m sick of the rhetoric. I’m sick of the defamation. I’m sick of the CANCER. We’re all completely sick to death of watching your once-fine reputation swirling around in the toilet. Uncle Pete I’ve known you a long time, since childhood. I know you can do this: Please wipe the egg off your face and restore everyone’s respect. Please… reach down and get rid of that damn thorn in your shoe, and give the 844 back to a loving & adoring world…

1. 2. & 3. UP 844 is eastbound at Aikins, KS on April 4, 2010.
(3 photos by Cliff Corn, “Topeka” on your TO dial)

It’s not too late…
Lance Garrels (santafe199)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/19 17:31 by santafe199.

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Man, you need a good turkey dinner and a nap soon.

😎

Posted from iPhone

I could use a little 4014 while they're at it.

Careful man, you're gonna summon the Steam Board with talk like that.

Amen to that!!

Just the same, nice shots of the 844!

Larry

I was there that day...the best egg I could get on that beautiful Easter Sunday. I miss those days about as much as I miss joking about "just another dang coal train" on the KP.
mg8711

Well said, Lance, well said.

Dick Ebright
Roosevelt, Utah

Wow.

I find it ironic that I'm listening to the Shining Time Station theme while looking at these. Both are pretty evocative.

2ebright Wrote:
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> Well said, Lance, well said.
>
> Dick Ebright
> Roosevelt, Utah

I second that.  And add that I'm sick of the unending dishonesty and
insults to my intelligence.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/15 18:28 by Realist.

August, 2012: we were at Archer Hill waiting on 844 when an empty coal train went by eastbound heading for the PRB via the Yoder Sub. My dad sent a message to a friend of his who would like to chase trains on the Yoder any chance he could get. The response he got was "I'd chase the coal train. 844 will be around forever, but we don't know how long trains will be taking the Yoder line."

11 months later, on July 20 and 21, we saw 844 next. That was also the last time. We are officially at 28 months and counting. Way too long. Hopefully my dad's friend was right.
~wko

Great photos!  Nice to see her in her natural habitat and dress.

My bones tell me that the UP beancounters are gonna  axe the whole steam program--- and then we can resume these threads spouting venom and spleen and vitriol about the YouPee and what unfeeling anti-railfan dunderheads and etc etc the are ad nauseam---- :-). Should keep the popcorn people in business  for another year or two---- :-)
C

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

CarolVoss Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My bones tell me that the UP beancounters are
> gonna  axe the whole steam program--- and then we
> can resume these threads spouting venom and spleen
> and vitriol about the YouPee and what unfeeling
> anti-railfan dunderheads and etc etc the are ad
> nauseam---- :-). Should keep the popcorn people in
> business  for another year or two---- :-)
> C

If they do, it will be due not
To railfans pointing out what went wrong after 2010, but due to top management finally getting their collective thumbs out and investigating the travesty of the last 5 years and who has been covering it up.

It seems the clown running the circus at Cheyenne was put there to oversee the collapse of the circus tent.

gyralite Wrote:
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> It seems the clown running the circus at Cheyenne
> was put there to oversee the collapse of the
> circus tent.

Or to cause it.

CarolVoss Wrote: > ...then we can resume these threads spouting venom and spleen and vitriol
gyralite Wrote: > ...the clown running the circus at Cheyenne...

I have a CD full of really good photos from my friend and fellow Kansas fan Mr Clif Corn. He handed me this CD with permission to post his images 'at my discretion'. There are numerous images left on the CD that are post-worthy here on TO, including a fair amount of 844 & a few 3985 shots. As I was re-sizing & dressing these images up in Photoshop it occurred to me that I was literally sick & tired of NO 844 or 3985 running around. I've contributed a half dozen or so comments during the nearly 2 year long posted dialog turmoil within the Steam forum. Even so, I get weary of the need for the continuing dialog, and would love to see it resolved. And I would love to see UP's Steam program rescued from the oblivion it's in and nursed back to health. It was in this spirit I posted these images with the personal spin I put on them. If I had wanted to start more flames I would have posted this thread on the Steam forum, slightly reworded. But this was NOT my intent. I was hoping (but HARDLY expecting) my words to reach Omaha. I honestly believe Union Pacific can "right this ship" if they want to.

I realize I don't have control over any members' replies, so if this thread gets steered toward more flames there's not much I can do about it...

Lance/199

Lance ---

VERY well-said -- I agree 100%.  It breaks my heart what
Dickens has done to her.  And to the Steam Program -- now,
as one poster here on TO put it, UP's Steam-less Program.

And -- VERY nice photos!  I absolutely LOVE the 844! 
WHAT a LOCOMOTIVE!!  wow.....

IMO -- What will almost certainly kill the Steam Program is
UP's present financial state.  Their bean-counters are not going
to sit by and ignore all the money going into a program that
never -- even at its best -- could prove to those bean-counters
that it directly contributed one thin dime to the company's
bottom line.  And top management is going to listen to these
bean-counters about this program.  Again -- I am NOT an
expert.  This is just my 2 cents.  FWIW.

I would just LOVE to be wrong about this.  I really would.

 

Hi Margaret. You said;
"IMO -- What will almost certainly kill the Steam Program is
UP's present financial state.  Their bean-counters are not going
to sit by and ignore all the money going into a program that
never -- even at its best -- could prove to those bean-counters
that it directly contributed one thin dime to the company's
bottom line."
While I was on the steam crew we had a recession type similar situation and what we did was to cut back on the number of trips for that year. As I recall we only did two, the Denver Post and one other. So their not being ready to operate just yet would fall into that catagory.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY