Steam & Excursion > This Must Have Been Pretty Impressive For The Rear Of Any Train!

Can you imagine gazing down at the slow moving freight as it moved through the yards at Syracuse, NY back in August 1941 and seeing this bringing up the rear of the train?  Even if you had been tipped of to what was bringing up the rear of the train you would still be impressed.

ALCO's nearby Schenectady plant had just completed the second of the Union Pacific Big Boys and had sent her on her way to her new owner and a life of toil over Sherman Hill in Wyoming.

Even dead-in-train at the rear of this freight you can not help but have your breath taken away at the shear mass and size of this monster of a machine.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/16 03:00 by LoggerHogger.

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With that much weight on the end of the train, and empty hoppers ahead, there was no worry of stringlining on a curve?

Cheers, Jim Fitch

Surprised that it has all its rods attached.

Look closely.  The front piston rod is not there.  They are probably in the coal bunker.

It's amazing to me that there was a route out of Schenectady that allowed an engine with such a large loading gage to pass through on its way to the West.  Big Boy's were fairly tall engines and the UP had to realign some curves on multiple track lines to provide clearance between 4000 class locomotives and trains on the other adjacent tracks.

That is a great photo.  Thanks for posting it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/16 06:25 by sgriggs.

I wonder if this is just a switching move, no caboose behind it.

That's a standad NYC caboose on the next track.

​Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

What a great photo--thanks Martin for posting

ALCO's plant is not "nearby" the location of the photo.  Syracuse is 132 miles west of Schenectady.

eG Wrote:
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> ALCO's plant is not "nearby" the location of the
> photo.  Syracuse is 132 miles west of
> Schenectady.

Sure it is, when you take into consideration how far from Sherman Hill is ...That's the point Martin is trying to make...
Thanks Martin great photo



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/25/16 14:14 by spicolli1864.

Thanks for clearing up a part of a mystery for me, Martin.   I often wondered how the routing went for the UP locomotives produced by Alco-Schenectady.  I had heard various schemes, including D&H and others.  Nice to know that as a boy I missed seeing some Big Boys traveling through Little Falls, NY on the New York Central.