Steam & Excursion > Steam Shop work over the years

Hello TO friends, enjoy this walk down rebuild memory lane some years back now, these photos show the work that we completed in 2016 with the grand UP 844. My intention was to enjoy a near full 5 years (2014-2019) devoted to a very thorough rebuilding of the Big Boy - However, it was necessary to complete this serious in-depth work before we could begin the long task of rebuilding the UP 4014. Before we could start this work, we removed the office type false ceiling that encompassed the entire shop floor area, along with nearly one ton of Pigeon...uh material, to access the 50-ton drop table that was inoperative. This work began the long process of gearing up for more and more work, replacing all of our stay bolt taps, rivet snaps, guns, stay bolt material, caps & sleeves etc, it was quite fun and exciting knowing where it would ultimately lead. After further analysis I decided to replaced the bottom 1/4 of the firebox as much of that area was already under minimum thickness, this resulted in 435 stay bolts and all of the threaded sleeve caps as you can see in the photos, included with all of that work was replacing the original cab floor, most of the deck bracing and a good part of the run boards, brackets and nearly all of the boiler studs front to rear. While we were in there, we rebuilt all of the heavy turret valves, most of the steam piping, air brakes & piping, water glass hardware, fuel lines, water column work...I can go on as I have over 1000 photos of this project alone. It was all unplanned until we removed the jacket in early 2013 to access some areas of concern. As I've stated in my earlier posts, please, let's not get to far off topic asking when we'll enjoy seeing this great locomotive back out, please stand by for more official releases regarding those important details. I'm sure you can appreciate, nobody wants to see these machines in action more than we do.

Thank you for reading,

Ed

307-214-3547



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/25 05:14 by EdDickens.

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A few more photos to show the areas of concern that were replaced with new material.

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Whiting 50-ton drop table rebuild project, after it jammed during use, we limped it back up a few inches and I climbed down into the dark cavern only to discover that it was sitting in many inches of oily water, so we regrouped to hoist the heavy machine out on newly built special narrow gauge track and got to work cleaning out the pit. Several of the screw column nuts were worn, therefore we machined custom left and right hand "helicoils" and silvered them in. It was a rush job as we were working to drop the #4 driver from the 844 to continue the ever expanding work scope on that project. 

Thanks for reading,

Ed



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/25 19:55 by EdDickens.

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Wow!!!


Thanks for doing all this, and thanks for sharing these pictures!

Great pictures, thank you for sharing them with us.

Tom

Thanks for the post, Ed.  'Appreciate your focus upon the details of your crews' work.  'Quite the shop facility that you get to "play" with.

Greg Stadter
Phoenix, AZ

Impressive work on several fronts to keep the Steam Shop operational.  Thanks for posting your photos.

Thanks for sharing this behind the scenes detail. It's fascinating work.

You are creating a important historical archive. Hopefully someday it will find its way to the archives in Laramie. 

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

Gives meaning to " there is not one thing on a railroad a man can buy by himself or pick up by him self."

Very impressive Ed! Thanks for sharing.
Jim Kreider

That's a lot of work. Thanks for sharing 

Thanks for your post Ed! Very impressive indeed. Is there any chance the Red warning light will go back on the smokebox front of the 844?

Posted from iPhone

Impressive what you have done to improve
the UP steam program, hats off to you!!!!

Thank you Ed for sharing the great images and adding to the background/history of the UP
Steam Program ... nicely done!  Lookin' forward to some interesting adventures next year
out on the rails!

Cheers 

Odyssey
(Wayne Kemp)
Evergreen, CO

 

Great run-down of shop work.  The Klingers

"...The 8444 and 44 other 800 series locomotives were the most efficient steam locomotives owned by Union Pacific. They could run at sustained speeds of 90 miles an hour and in tests ran faster than 100 miles per hour. They were available for service 93.4 percent of the time...
"Nostalgic oldtimers cal the passing of the steam locomotive as the end of an era. ... the preservation of 8444, one of the most colorful steamers Union Pacific ever owned, retains a bit of that nostalgia.
"John Kenefick, 
President, Union Pacific Railroad"
1978

love to see all 4 running!

Who knows if this UP/NS merger becomes a reality maybe in ten years we'll see either the 4014 or 844 traveling down the CNO&TP. You can always dream.
As old as I'm getting I'll probably never see it but maybe the younger generation might have the opportunity. 

perhaps next year on the DC tour?  was possibly going via horse curve but now? maybe now it will do a swing?