Steam & Excursion > 3985: A cinder in your eye

Thinking of 3985 in its glory fan trip days, here are some samples from an album produced by the Union Pacific photo department of a trip with coal-burning 3985 between Cheyenne and Larmie on Oct. 8, 1983.   This particular run was covered by NBC news.  It was the same day UP staged a "race" in the Cheyenne yard.

Photo 1   All steamed up along the south side of the Cheyenne locomotive shop.
Photo 2  The TV crew finds a high vantage point to take it all in.
Photo 3   Talk about leaning out the cab window!
More
 

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Photo 4   That is the late Kenton Forrest, center,  from the Colorado Railroad Museum and the trip's sponsoring National Railroad Historical Society chapter in Denver.  On the right is Jude Buemi who worked the trip with Kenton.
Photo 5  After comparing other photos in the series I think this is Speer just after the Centennial from Denver has been cut off and in the clear. 
Photo 6   Saddled up for the great "race" in Cheyenne. The 8444 "won".
JB - Omaha

 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/20 15:25 by Copy19.

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Great pictures! Oddly enough, I got a "cinder" in my eye hanging out the vestibule of a #3985 excursion in 1984-- but it was after #3985 was switched out with DDA40X #6922 to take us into Denver. Whatever it was it hurt like crazy!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/20 20:42 by davew833.

That's why the wise folks wear clear goggles...
DUH!!

​W.

In photo number two my wife and I are just past the power pole. Our blue 1983 Plymouth Horizon is parked on the road to the right. Quite a memory. Thanks for sharing it.

Kennard Britton
Bedford, TX
 

I know the 3985 used to also shower the landscape with hot cinders, which ignited numerous fires.  IIRC, 3985 was limited to running from Cheyenne to Laramie from 1982-1989.

I was young and stupid at the time.

wcamp1472 Wrote:
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> That's why the wise folks wear clear goggles...
> DUH!!
>
> ​W.

" I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now"
--- Bob Dylan...

It's a good song about discovering, in life, how much we don't know...
I used to "know it all", many years ago,

Now, I'm old enough that I'm amazed, and eager, at what new stuff
I keep learning ....

I still have to check-myself and refrain from quickly judging other people.
At sometimes in the past, I'd done a variation of the behavior that
I'd jumped to criticize.  Sometimes the mirror don't look so good....

I've gotten cinders in my eyes, when I'd decided to not wear goggles...
Luckily, I simply blinked and blinked till they worked their way out.
Never rubbed my eyes..

A friend, during an excursion ( open-door baggage car, in New England,
behind CNR 6218) caught a cinder & rubbed his eye ---- at St Albany, Vt,
(while they turned 6218), he got treated by a local Dr.---- no cinder, but
my friend had scratched the surface of his eye...constant rubbing.
After treatment, the local Dr. put a patch over the eye, to protect it from his knuckles.
Rode back to New London on the cushions..

I was lucky in life, that I still have both eyes; had one close-call, around the house,
at an eye injury--- been lucky, I guess..

​W.




 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/20 05:39 by wcamp1472.

Most train-related, line-side fires were started by sparking low-down, near the tracks.
In the days of cast iron brake shoes, it was very common fir furry sparks to be thrown-off..
A common cause was either defects in the the ashpans of coal burners, or failure of workers
to properly close and secure the ash pan (dump) doors.

Ash pans CAN. be affected by cross winds...that have blown live, glowing embers outside the pans.

Another maintenance-related area was defective front-end ( spark catching) netting. 
It is typically woven steel sheets secured to catch and trap cinders that were larger size.
Often the netting got abraded and worn, with large holes allowing hot sparks to escape.

Wood burners were notorious for throwing live sparks out the stacks.
It would be rare for coal burners to throw sparks out the stack ---- if heavily fired, they generally 
threw the fly-ash well up,into the air, and the stuff that hit the ground had been cooled-off, by then.

Keep the front end netting in good shape, keep the ash pan closed, most causes of 
starting line side fires can be eliminated....

Many line-side fires have other than trains as causes...

​W.


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/20 11:06 by wcamp1472.

As I've said before, us Western "sissies" with our oil burners missed all that fun. Probably need a better dictionary or 
theasaures to get that definition of fun but hey, as they say, it's still all steam (even on the D&S), But (as I add) the 4014
today isn't what I remember the first time I saw one as a child, maybe coal isn't all bad. 

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/20 10:50 by callum_out.

Such huge ENG TV news cameras! I worked for 18 years in TV news from the end of the heavy tape-based cameras on shoulders era (Betacam SP) to just last year when we had reporters recording their own stories (in HD video!) on their phones...

Yes, in the days gone by the cinders would keep the right of way burned down before it had much of a chance to grow. But in the latter days that wasn't the case and they did have issues with right of way fires. After the round trips to Provo in 1982, with all the right of way fires at Point of the Mountain, the 3985  crew was restricted to operating 3985 on Sherman hill only.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/20 07:41 by Bob3985.