Steam & Excursion > There Is Plenty Of Behind The Scenes Work For Any Steam Trip!

Sometimes we forget all the work that goes into any steam excursion.  Some folks simply show up on time and enjoy the trip without ever giving a thought to all the planning and preparation that it takes to pull off a steam excursion.  Here is an example of the preparations for one such trip.

The date is March 11, 1956 and the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club of Denver, Colorado has chartered Union Pacific 4-12-2 #9000 to pull and excursion from Cheyenne, Wyoming to Denver on the Dent Branch.  This will be #9000's last such excursion as soon she will be on her way to California for permanent display.

At the last minute, UP tried to substitute a 4000-Class engine for the #9000.  The club protested as they had advertised this trip to be behind #9000 and they wanted to keep thier promise to the club members.  UP relented and #9000 was spruced up for the trip.

At the Cheyenne roundhouse we see the shop crews busy preparing #9000 for her trip on this snowy morning.  One of the crew is on top of the engine filing the sand dome as the rails are likely to be slippery on this below-zero morning.  Her engineer is giving the big beast a walk around to check the condition of her running gear.

Soon these preparations will be complete and it will be off to the depot to pick up the club members who chartered this special train.

Martin



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/20 00:15 by LoggerHogger.

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Hi Martin;  I've always felt loco prep is a key component of any video presentation rather than just one run past after another. 

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> Hi Martin;  I've always felt loco prep is a key
> component of any video presentation rather than
> just one run past after another. 

Without the proper preparation of the locomotive, you may not be able to have runby after runby all day.

Martin

Must have put on quite a show in that below zero weather, any photos of of this trip with 9000 working out on the Mainline?

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

What a beast. Even with that club emblem on the pilot lol. But then again if I was in a club that chartered such a machine I'd probably want my name all over it too!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/20 19:42 by GN599.

Still hard to fathom that one of these giants, with its long, rigid wheelbase, actually made it around the Cajon Pass summit curves to a museum in LA.  That would have been interesting to see.

Obvious question department: was there ever a public excursion pulled by a Big Boy in the Twentieth Century?

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