Home | Open Account | Help | 275 users online |
Member Login
Discussion
Media SharingHostingLibrarySite Info |
Steam & Excursion > Big Boy questionDate: 04/21/14 10:50 Big Boy question Author: johns We've all heard the story about how the UP's 4-8-8-4 got it's "nickname" Big Boy but had the railroad already picked a name for this class and then decided just to use Big Boy? If so, what would this class have been called?
Sorry if this has already appeared in another thread. john Date: 04/21/14 11:09 Re: Big Boy question Author: Hillcrest Wasatch Class...debate will ensue shortly on the correct spelling, I know it but simply can't remember.
Cheers, Dave Date: 04/21/14 11:13 Re: Big Boy question Author: NWClassJ I agree...Wasatch.
Date: 04/21/14 11:15 Re: Big Boy question Author: AmtrakJulie Hillcrest Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > Wasatch Class...debate will ensue shortly on the > correct spelling, I know it but simply can't > remember. > > Cheers, Dave It's so nice when you are prescient about flaming....hopefully you'll have time to get your Kevlar and Nomex on! AJ Date: 04/21/14 11:22 Re: Big Boy question Author: HotWater Hillcrest Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > Wasatch Class...debate will ensue shortly on the > correct spelling, I know it but simply can't > remember. > > Cheers, Dave The Mountain Range that the UP's 4000 class locomotives were designed to originally operate in, is spelled "Wahsatch". So take your pick. Date: 04/21/14 11:26 Re: Big Boy question Author: F40PHR231 Is it not named after the railroad town Wahsatch at the summit of the grade between Ogden and Evanston? The mountain range is spelled as "Wasatch", but the summit railroad town where a water tank still exists is spelled "Wahsatch". The railroad town would be appropriate considering there were quite a few railroad routes over the Wasatch, so naming it after a town on the grade makes it fitting to the UP, not competing railroads.
Date: 04/21/14 11:32 Re: Big Boy question Author: UPNW2-1083 Maybe this is why the "Big Boy" name stuck, they couldn't decide on the spelling! lol -BMT
Date: 04/21/14 11:33 Re: Big Boy question Author: HotWater F40PHR231 Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > Is it not named after the railroad town Wahsatch > at the summit of the grade between Ogden and > Evanston? The mountain range is spelled as > "Wasatch", but the summit railroad town where a > water tank still exists is spelled "Wahsatch". The > railroad town would be appropriate considering > there were quite a few railroad routes over the > Wasatch, so naming it after a town on the grade > makes it fitting to the UP, not competing > railroads. Looks like the late William W. Kratville spelled the Mountain Range incorrectly on page 7 of his book "BIG BOY". Date: 04/21/14 15:49 Re: Big Boy question Author: GMUP The name of the Utah mountain range is Wasatch! The Union Pacific named their station at the summit Wahsatch.
Look it up in an Atlas . . . The name for the class under consideration was Wasatch. Date: 04/21/14 17:28 Re: Big Boy question Author: Keystone1 I personally think it "looks" better WITHOUT the H.
Date: 04/21/14 18:02 Re: Wasatch Author: timz The topo map calls the mountains Wasatch;
anyone found a map that calls them Wahsatch? Date: 04/21/14 18:10 Re: Big Boy question [Hollywood Influence!!!] Author: Red I often wonder how much the Hollywood movie "Danger Lights," which came out just before any of the UP 4000s, but a RR Classic, might have had an effect??? In the scene were the one character says to the other something-or-the-other character about "You've got one of those Big Boys to take out this afternoon!!!" Which was nothing but a Milwaukee Road Pacific or whatever, maybe a Mike?
Then, as the story goes, somebody (nobody knows who) chalked "BIG BOY" on the smokebox of one of the 4000s--if not the 4000 itself?--inside the factory right before/right after completion. Right before final painting. But I personally think that the HOLLYWOOD Influence from just a few years prior had a DEEP cultural influence on the "Big Boy" nomenclature, pure and simple. [Which could as easily have gone to another class of loco as another, but STUCK with this one, and appropriately so]. Date: 04/21/14 18:14 Re: Wasatch Author: coach timz Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > The topo map calls the mountains Wasatch; > anyone found a map that calls them Wahsatch? But I like it with the "H"! It makes me say "Wahhhh..." first! Date: 04/21/14 19:21 Re: Wasatch Author: TheApostleGreen I've also read that Wasatch/Wahsatch was likely to be the moniker, but I thought George Drury put it best in "Guide to North American Steam Locomotives:"
[Drury:]-------------------------- There's no record of other names [besides "Big Boy"] that UP might have come up with. They wouldn't have been as good. [/Drury]-------------------------- AMEN! Date: 04/21/14 19:49 Re: Wasatch Author: MitchGDRMCo Now it might be because I didn't grow up with them and I'm not American but Wasatch is a far better name in my opinion than Big Boy, Big Boy sounds like a nickname rather than a proper name for a locomotive.
Date: 04/23/14 07:21 Re: Wasatch Author: HotWater MitchGDRMCo Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------- > Now it might be because I didn't grow up with them > and I'm not American but Wasatch is a far better > name in my opinion than Big Boy, Big Boy sounds > like a nickname rather than a proper name for a > locomotive. Excellent observation, and I agree with you. Besides, the working men & women of the UP didn't call them "Big Boys" either. They were know as "4000s", especially the enginemen and mechanical forces that worked on and around them. |