Steam & Excursion > 844 Ogden UT in 2012

The recent discussions regarding UP 844 prompted me to dig through some photographs of the last time I saw 844 in person. On September 21, 2012 Union Pacific’s 150th Anniversary Special made a stop in Ogden UT on its journey west and laid over several days at Ogden Union Station.  The station still sports two tracks, a platform, one of the original canopies and an operating water column (the other trackage was cleared out in 2006-2007 to make room for the UTA Frontrunner commuter rail which needed the space for a flyover and has its own set of platforms north of Union Station). I wasn’t much into chasing the train but was interested in seeing it at the historic station. Unfortunately the sky was very hazy due to forrest fires in Idaho and Montana, apologies for the washed out photos. 

1) Arriving in Ogden, passing 31st Street at the north end of Riverdale yard and entering the station lead. 
2) The train stopped at the south end of the station and the three diesels were removed and 844 was refueled.  
3) Proceeding through the station sans the diesels towards the water column.

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4) Stopping at the water column as seen from the 24th Street viaduct.  

5) & 6) The crew fills the tender with water. The 24th street viaduct is an ideal place to view the action as the pedestrian walkway is separated from the roadway by a concrete barrier. I was soon joined by a group of curious teenagers and a police officer taking pictures of the train with his cell phone. An elderly gentlemen with car trouble happened to pull over at this spot also. The passing motorists were naturally distracted by this activity on the bridge and after several near misses it didn’t take long for someone to smash into stopped traffic that had backed up from the intersection at the bottom of the bridge. Fortunately no one was hurt. 

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7) The train was then pulled forward into the weeds so the auxiliary tender could be filled. Crew members take interest in the museum’s steam derrick and rotary snow plow.  
8) Fueled and watered the train was then tied down for the evening. 
9) The view from the south end of the station. Unfortunately the smoke obscured Ben Lomond peak which normally figures prominently behind the station. As a side note, wouldn’t it be great to 844 and 4449 here together in 2019? We can dream, right? :^) 

Spencer Evans
Salt Lake City, UT

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Spencer   thanks for the great and now archival pictures of 844!

  I have comparable pics also of 3985 in Ogden from 2000 when she was headed to LA, something I now think will never be repeated

Nice job --thanks for the reminder

Doug D
Lander, WY
 

Who is that on top of the tender with no yellow shirt?  Management?

Ed

Auburn_Ed Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Who is that on top of the tender with no yellow
> shirt?  Management?
>
> Ed

That is indeed the great and all-powerful,
all-knowing, DL himself.

Setting a fine example for his employees, all of
whom ARE wearing theirs, except for the faux
conductor.

And not long after the end of this trip, he fired the
boilermaker seen holding the spout down.

Notice, too, that the sludge remover centrifugal
separater has been removed.

The boiler was already starting to fill with mud
and crud.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/16 11:20 by Realist.

We saw it on the way home.  I wish I had gotten up in the morning to chase it up Echo Canyon.  I was tired and dumbly said "I'll catch it next time".  Thanks for posting your photos, hopefully there will be a next time.  

#8 is excellent, with the water plug, trainshed, rotree, conductor, and no medallion on 844.  Great photo!   BSB

Hopefully, this question hasn't been asked in the past. If it has, please forgive me. In photo #4, we see the 844's double smokestack. What is the advantage(s) of this? Does it create more draft for the firebox? Less back pressure for the exhaust? To my knowledge, this arrangement wasn't used a lot and I've been wanting to ask this question for a long time. Thanks in advance for any explanations.

Posted from Android

That boilermaker was the best thing that steam program had going for it since Steve Lee retired. That's my opinion that may be slightly biased, but I swear he was as close to a member of the old crew as a new crew member could get. I wish he were still there, but I'm glad he doesn't have to endure that nightmare anymore.

Nice pics and if I remember some of the guys on here said, he knew his stuff and that's what didn't fit Ed's viewpoint, go figure!

Thank you for the post ...

Brought back my own memories of that trip ... rendezvoused with the 844 in Ogden and did chase her back to Cheyenne ... sure had no clue about what was gonna happen and the subsequent years of immobilization and dissection.  Sure hope this isn't gonna be a Humpty Dumpty story as the pieces parts are reassembled ... and after seeing the 844 at Cheyenne Depot days last weekend ... it will be a real push to get her operational by July 21 and that assumes 100+% efficiency and no gotchas (fat chance from my perspective) ... I ain't taken the bet that she'll southbound to Denver on 7/21

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/16 22:47 by Odyssey.