Western Railroad Discussion > 4014 alpha & omega

In my long tenure as a railfan with the additional description of “photographer” attached I have been fortunate enough to go many places and see & shoot many 100s of historical & highly interesting RR subjects. Being inside the industry as a trainman/engineman for 32 years opened up a few extra doors that were locked for so many less fortunate “civilians”. And I have been closely associated with a whole generation of railfans who regularly saw & shot stuff like the Santa Fe Red & Silver passenger era, any Rock Island passenger trains, Union Pacific Turbines and above all, Steam Engines from all kinds of roads in regular daily operation. Along with access to some incredibly historic RR photography I have befriended and certainly respected railfans like the Gibsons, Lloyd Stagner, Tom Lee, Dick Spain, Steve Patterson, Joe McMillan, Jim Watson and many others in that generation of railfans right ahead of me. So I really can’t complain!

But I still do. In reality we all complain about the stuff we missed. Almost all of us complain that we were “born 20 years too late”. Sherman & Mr Peabody have become, or rather, their time machine has become near & dear to the hearts of all railfans longing to see railroading’s past, which we all yearn for. It’s a melancholy burden we all bear. And then a funny thing happened to me yesterday. Sherman & Peabody actually showed up! In a 15 hour stretch I was able catch up one huge stride with Bill & Art & Lloyd & Tom & Dick & Steve & Joe & Jim. All of whom at the very least had viable opportunities to shoot or witness Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 “Big Boys” in service. Maybe 2 or 3 of the above didn’t actually see a regular Big Boy at work. But that would be because of geography rather than age.

Uncle Pete promised, and he delivered! At age 64 I have now seen & photographed my first real live Big Boy. I intend to duplicate this chase. I intend to triplicate this chase. Quadruplicate? Quintuplicate?? You bet! I shot 380+ images yesterday. After running them through the usual weeding & deleting session I took the surviving 168 images through date & location attachment, and other misc prep work for final filing. It took me all day. 98 of those images were directly of the 4014, or had the 4014 in frame. For the first time in my railfan career I can truthfully say I'm about to start posting my very own Union Pacific Big Boy photography. A confusing, head-messing confession for a die-hard Santa Fe fan. But there you have it!

Here are 3 more preliminary Big Boy shots to gander at before I eventually break out with the whole chase, most likely in 2 large parts… 

1. ALPHA: My very 1st live Big Boy shot ever was taken looking west from the ‘3rd Rd’ crossing just east of Grand Island, NE. UP 4014 becomes visible under a modest plume of smoke, and my personal history is rewritten. Tom Jurgens, Ken Church & I had a good plan. We would merely flow along with what Tom called the “Conga Line” of pacing loonies. We would hop-scotch all the service stops and find good shooing locations in between. The plan was working great, until we got lucky when…

2. …an opportune slot opened up and let us merge into the front half of the mile-long pacing line. And then right away we suffered an unexpected MID-chase crisis: Here’s a scene all mobile railfans dread seeing. Especially mobile “pacing line” fans. Don’t look now, but approximately 40 cars in the front of the line made it through this one-lane railfan trap before the signal dropped red and we ALL had to make a heavy brake pipe reduction. There musta been upwards of another 30-40 cars behind us. Here I am getting the disastrous visual evidence from the shotgun seat of Tom’s rig, just west of Silver Creek, NE. Look really close and you’ll find the top of the 4014 + train above the 5th ~ 7th cars ahead of us…

3. OMEGA: My very last shot of the day of the 4014 being pulled backwards toward its “Home Plate” display location in downtown Omaha, NE. I will certainly plan for return engagements whenever I can.
(3 photos taken July 12, 2019)

Thanks for looking back a whole generation!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/19 15:34 by santafe199.

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Ah yes, "Road Destruction Ahead"!   Glad you survived it!  

I am enjoying seeing these shots you "geezers" got in Nebraska, thanks for posting.  


Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote: > ... shots you "geezers" got ...

Boy... ya got THAT part right! At 64 I believe I was the youngster of the trio. At the end of our 15 hour day there was a mutual 'all systems deleted' feeling. We stopped and had supper at a Lansky's (good pizza, BTW!) and when time came to go we were "wheezer geezers". moaning & groaning in 3-part harmony. I don't think even Three Dog Night could have done a better job with that kind of harmony...

DJ Sir L

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ntharalson Wrote: > ... shots you "geezers" got
> ...
>
> Boy... ya got THAT part right! At 64 I believe I
> was the youngster of the trio. At the end of our
> 15 hour day there was a mutual 'all systems
> deleted' feeling. We stopped and had supper at a
> Lansky's (good pizza, BTW!) and when time came to
> go we were "wheezer geezers". moaning & groaning
> in 3-part harmony. I don't think even Three Dog
> Night could have done a better job with that kind
> of harmony...
>
> DJ Sir L

Wait till you get to 75!

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

ntharalson Wrote: > ...  Wait till you get to 75 ...

WAAAHHHH! I've told you before I'll swap your 75 for my extra baggage any day of the week & twice on Sunday...

;^)

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ntharalson Wrote: > ...  Wait till you get to 75
> ...
>
> WAAAHHHH! I've told you before I'll swap your 75
> for my extra baggage any day of the week & twice
> on Sunday...
>
> ;^)

No you won't!

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA