Steam & Excursion > Memories, the UP Steam Super Bowl train of 2004.

15 years ago today, Marysville, Kansas. UP Steam ties up for the night on the way back to Cheyenne from Houston. I'll post more if you like.

Best,
Jim Burrill

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We shot her coming through southern Illinois on the way to the Super Bowl party.  No snow, though.

Nice!

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

Thanks Jim. That was sure pretty chilly, however the next night at North Platte was even colder. Had to keep 3985 fired up all night and the well below zero overnight temperatures even froze up the cylinder cocks. Resulted in a delayed departure the next morning. Sure was a bitch firing her, what with that terrific cross wind ant the subzero temperatures.

I'm confused where the first photo was taken. If they are west bound as you say they would have to back in either the best wall spur or the old yard and it looks to be like they pulled forward and stopped. No disturbed snow in front of the pilot. Also on best wall spur there would be houses. When did the realignment take place?
Steve

The first photo was indeed taken on the Bestwall spur. It ran in the middle of a street for several blocks and the snow had been plowed to the middle of that street. There was a lot of snow there at that time. Here's another couple of photos. Jack, I was reminscing with Ed Smith about this trip today. He said they couldn't get enough electric heaters to keep the plumbing from freezing in the cars.

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Wow! 3985 down a residential street! What a sight.

kurt765 Wrote:
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> Wow! 3985 down a residential street! What a sight.


Straight out of the opening scene of The Polar Express

Posted from iPhone

I fired her from St Louis to Jefferson City MO, but I don't remember what trip it was on.  It was 19 degrees out and the cab was cozy, even with the windows open and the back doors closed.   Before the redrafting of 3985.  I held a tight ass the whole way and was lucky not to fall behind.  My 1522 companions who took over didn't fare so well.  It wasn't pretty.

Jim, thanks for posting these slides. I was out on the morning UP 3985 departed westbound from Marysville . She looked great with steam really pouring out in the below freezing weather  . Took a couple of dandy medium format prints  , but oh, how bitter cold it was out.  My camera felt like a block of ice .
Those were good times with a superb locomotive and a  crew of wonderful friends . --Kelly



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/19 19:28 by UP951West.

wpjones Wrote:
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> I'm confused where the first photo was taken. If
> they are west bound as you say they would have to
> back in either the best wall spur or the old yard
> and it looks to be like they pulled forward and
> stopped. No disturbed snow in front of the pilot.
> Also on best wall spur there would be houses. When
> did the realignment take place?
> Steve

The work on the bypass and the new yard started in 2003 or 2004 as I recall. It opened for service in 2006. The change has made for a lot of improvements for rail and automobile traffic in Marysville, but there is still a part of me that misses the old alignment through town - including the old street running portion of the Bestwall Spur. Nothing like seeing a massive UP Challenger in the middle of a residential street in small town Kansas!  

YES!  please post more

wpjones Wrote:
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> I'm confused where the first photo was taken. If
> they are west bound as you say they would have to
> back in either the best wall spur or the old yard
> and it looks to be like they pulled forward and
> stopped. No disturbed snow in front of the pilot.
> Also on best wall spur there would be houses. When
> did the realignment take place?
> Steve
Steve, that is the Best Wall Spur and it has backed in westbound. Eastbound we would pull in and then back out to depart. Now as for the snow we did have to move the locomotive back and forth to service the rods.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/19 05:32 by Bob3985.

Great photos and stories.

Which begs a question about the cars freezing.  Were they HEP'd or was the biggest steam generator on rails still heating the cars?

I think I know the answer but could someone confirm?

Thanks.

It was HEP, of course. The old Howard Fogg HEP generator was working hard to keep her from freezing. As Jack says, he stayed in the cab of the 3985 to keep the steam up overnight.
Anyway, here's a picture just south of Hastings, February 12, 2004.

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4489 Wrote:
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> Great photos and stories.
>
> Which begs a question about the cars freezing. 
> Were they HEP'd or was the biggest steam generator
> on rails still heating the cars?
>
> I think I know the answer but could someone
> confirm?
>
> Thanks.

ALL passenger equipment on UP is HEP equipped. Even all the steam crew equipment is HEP and the HEP generator is located in the "heavy end" of the "Boiler-Dormitory" car (the end with the3 axle truck), i.e. the "Howard Fogg".

It was really funny. Steve Lee and I were standing in the doorway of the coach car as she backed in. Steve was watching the backward shove and giving car counts to Roger Myli who was in the engineer's seat. Some lady pulled in next to us and she was from Ft. Collins. She wanted the whole story of the train. Steve said "The greenie foamers are even haunting me in backwoods Kansas".

Backwoods.  Thanks for that. ;)

Here's one more picture: Lynn Nystrom was clowning around after we were discussing his nickname, "Nasty". He said "I'll show you nasty"!

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The business cars and the Steam support cars were meant as fair weather operation cars.   They could handle some cold, but weren't meant for continued sub zero.    That was fine until somebody decided to send us to cold places.   The fleets have now been modified to handle it better.    On the other side, cold weather requires nearly twice the KW that hot weather does.   I had trips where I had both Gens in the power car running along with several cars running on their own generators.   If anything shut down, you were screwed.