Steam & Excursion > May have seen working 4014 74 years ago

Am age 80 so what I can recall of my train travels 74 years ago is dim and vague. Traveled with mother and sister from Colfax, CA to Chicago via the Pacific Limited, No 21, in summer of 44, then returned to Oakland, CA summer of 1945, again via the Pacific Limited, No 22. Did I then see a Big Boy- perhaps 4014 itself!
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/19 12:40 by n9949y.

Who’s to say otherwise.?..

I had similar experiences on the NYC RR, Hudson River line...Rhinecliff, NY..
Saw Hudsons, Mohawks, and Niagaras...
I remembered seeing the big Niagaras, elephant-ears, and all....the platforms at Rhinecliff were at rail,level—- those shiny black Niagaras were MAGNIFICENT...... perhaps I got a ride behind my favorite: 6009...
Who’s to say otherwise?

Summer vacations took us from the Jersey Shore to Rhinebeck, NY.
Loved those trips.... Penney K4s to South Ambiy, GG1s ( pin stripes) to cavernous Penn Station....T-motors, from
Grand Central Terminal to Harmon...Then the FAST  romp up the Hudson behind a a Niagara... getting off at Rhinecliff..

NOW, that’s livin’...

Wes

(Who coulda’ believed that in October, 1968, I would be firing NKP 759 out of Harmon, on way to Niagara Falls, 
Then In May, 1969, I fired the 759 on the first leg, up that beautiful Hudson Valley....Promontory bound ...
Golden Soike Centennial Limited, Steam powered, by the Big 759, with 14 matching blue cars in tow...To Kansas Ciy, MO., then behind 6900 to Salt Lake City, the UP 8444 to Ogden & the 100th Ceremony at Promontory.... 5-days later rolling into Penn Station, NYC, behind a commerative GG1, painted in the same blue as our train.. 50 years later, I still can’t believe it....
Am enjoying today’s events, but with joy &  reverie from the magnificent past.. living the Railfan’s Dream.)
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/19 15:26 by wcamp1472.

I’m quite sure you did see a Big Boy or 3 along the route. 1944 on the UP would have been a busy place for our favorite steamy monsters.
I have vague, blurry images of steam from my elementary school overlooking the UP main line west from Omaha. Certainly in the late 50’s I would have seen 800’s and Challengers and maybe a 9000.
But the memory of a 7 year old is not very movie like, so I will have to be content with what I probably saw, based on the photos of you older guys.
The U.P. Has made my lament of the last 60 years no longer valid.

I AM old enough to have seen a Big Boy.

Rick z.

I'm with you, Wes on witnessing all manner of NYC steam as a youth.

n9949y Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Am age 80 so what I can recall of my train travels
> 74 years ago is dim and vague. Traveled with
> mother and sister from Colfax, CA to Chicago via
> the Pacific Limited, No 21, in summer of 44, then
> returned to Oakland, CA summer of 1945, again via
> the Pacific Limited, No 22. Did I then see a Big
> Boy- perhaps 4014 itself!
>  

I am not an expert but I believe the only areas the Big Boys ran was

Cheyenne-Laramie-Green River-Evanston-Ogden

Cheyenne to Denver.

So if you traveled the mainline west of Cheyenne they would have been in there for sure.

Greg
 

Count me as another one who travelled the Overland route in the post war '40s.  Then, our conveyance was the Gold Coast.....in those days, about 24 hours was spent on the UP....who knows how many of what classes of steam engines one would see on such a journey....but, the UP was a steam powered railroad then, except for the City streamliners.

One thing I do recall very well though, UP steam was typically filthy, I think only the PRR had more grimey power.  Dieselization would soon be upon both railroads, and, well, the entire industry, for that matter.   But, for this innocent, born in '42, steam was king, except for pockets of electrification, railroads operated in the traditional grand manner.  And, the PRR was just about overwhelming as one of those "pockets" of electrification, as was all the steam action everywhere else.

I am thankful for what memories still exist.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

I am also 80 years old, born in December of '38 and vaguely remember the UP through Sullivans Gulch between 47th and 53rd avenues in Portland.  I remember steam in the late 40s although I'm fairly certain no Big Boys ever made it our way.  I would suspect some Challengers did.  Kids from our neighborhood and I (including my wife of 52 years) crawled through blackberry bushes to the rail right-of-way picking berries along the way.  We shared blackberries with the hobos and they always gave us some of what they had, usually hot dogs.  We watched numerous trains, laid coins on the rails to be pressed and generally made ourselves obnoxious.

The gulch, of course, is no longer the same.  It was rail only then and now it is still rail along with MAX lightrail and Interstate 84 as well as warehouses.  No blackberries anymore.

My Dad was a rail and transit nut but life with him is a long, odd, story.  All I can say is that we spent many hours at the Brooklyn rail yard and saw a fair share of cab forwards.

Returning from a summer visit to my Great Uncles home in Michigan, I was riding shotgun in my Dad's '52 Pontiac Chieftan and coming into Rawlins, Wyo. on Highway 30 what should appear, but a Big Boy, and I didn't have my Argus C-3 ready for the shot of a lifetime.

James R.(Jim) Baker
Whittier, CA