Steam & Excursion > Fogg finds a Challenger: UP 3708 live in '59

Getting ready to head west @ Sidney NE on July 13,1959.   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/24 09:52 by valmont.

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Thanks for posting. Only about one week left before the end of regular steam operation on the UP.

Tom

I didn't realize how late UP was still running those.   I assume that means they were displaced by the arrival of the SD24 fleet.   

Milwaukee Wrote:
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> I didn't realize how late UP was still running
> those.   I assume that means they were displaced
> by the arrival of the SD24 fleet.   

These Challenger engines ran all the way to the very end. #3713 pulled the very last run of a regular steam-powered freight on July 23, 1959.

DRGWMark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------Do you know where this last run was made on the 23rd? I have read somewhere that the last run was a Big Boy arriving in Cheyenne from Laramie on the 21st.
Tom
> Milwaukee Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I didn't realize how late UP was still running
> > those.   I assume that means they were
> displaced
> > by the arrival of the SD24 fleet.   
>
> These Challenger engines ran all the way to the
> very end. #3713 pulled the very last run of a
> regular steam-powered freight on July 23, 1959.

UP3806 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DRGWMark Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----Do you know where this last run was made on
> the 23rd? I have read somewhere that the last run
> was a Big Boy arriving in Cheyenne from Laramie on
> the 21st.
> Tom
> > Milwaukee Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I didn't realize how late UP was still
> running
> > > those.   I assume that means they were
> > displaced
> > > by the arrival of the SD24 fleet.   
> >
> > These Challenger engines ran all the way to the
> > very end. #3713 pulled the very last run of a
> > regular steam-powered freight on July 23, 1959.

Found this on line:Union PacificNotes: Challenger #3713 arrival back at Cheyenne, after bringing a westbound of empty refrigerator cars out of North Platte, marked the end of regular UP steam hauled freight. Date: July 23, 1959Location: Cheyenne, WYSource: Railfan & Railroad Nov 1990

The 21st must have been the last run of a 4000.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

She looks like she has been earning a living and needs a bath, but worked up to the last gasp.

Damned dizmals.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
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> She looks like she has been earning a living and
> needs a bath, but worked up to the last gasp.
>
> Damned dizmals.

Well, as you can plainly see, the water across Nebraska was/is absolutely HORRIBLE!

It looks like he's topping-up the fuel oil tank for the 
Challenger.

​W.

 

wcamp1472 Wrote:
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> It looks like he's topping-up the fuel oil tank
> for the 
> Challenger.
>
> ​W.

Agreed. That is NOT a water stand pipe.

Per Lloyd Stagner's book Union Pacific Motive Power in Transition, in June1959 six 3700s were worked on freight trains from Ogden to Cheyenne.  Those six, plus the 3701 and 3707, were put into service between Cheyenne and North Platte starting July 2, 1959.  The last two running were the 3713 that arrived at Cheyenne and the 3703 that arrived at North Platte on the evening of July 22, 1959.  Six 4000s were put into service between Cheyenne and Laramie on July 6, 1959.  The 4015 made the last 4000 trip into Cheyenne on the afternoon of July 21, 1959.  The 838 made three roundtrips between Council Bluffs and Grand Island in 1959.

Steve

July 1959..regular steam freight service.  Amazing. Did any other big railroads run regular steam in 1959?  NKP was done in 1958.  I think N&W as well.  C&O?     

N&W ran big steam until May 1960.

Posted from iPhone

Per Lloyd Stagner's book "American Steam Finale,"  Illinois Central ran ten engines from late October 1959 into April 1960; Grand Trunk ran into early April 1960; DM&IR ran steam from early April 1960 into early July 1960; Lake Superior & Ishpeming ran two engines into September 1962; Colorado & Southern ran a 2-8-0 on its Leadville branch into October 1962.

Steve

valmont Wrote:

> Getting ready to head west @ Sidney NE on July 13,1959.   

Audio recordings from that day ended up on one of his LP's, "The Big Steam...Union Pacific." 

"Those final few weeks during July of '59 are unforgettable, for that was when we met the 3708.  Big, tough, fast!  A regular oil-burning tornado of an engine!  First we watched a crew board 3708 at Sidney, Nebraska one morning to take her over to the west end and latch onto a drag for Cheyenne."

A portion of that album is available on YouTube, with the 3708 recordings starting at 5:14:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyDYMT3EWvE

To add to the discussion, the following comes from the October 1959 issue of Trains magazine.

"The Status Of Steam -- For a few all-too-brief weeks on the eve of the steel strike last summer the durable steam locomotive appeared to be making what has become an annual renaissance. Smoke hung over Sherman Hill as Union Pacific 4-6-6-4's and 4-8-8-4's were withdrawn from storage and set to work pending the delivery of more 2400 h.p. SD24's from Electro-Motive (UP has ordered 75 of the turbocharged hood units). . . . Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range, working almost feverishly to move as much iron ore as possible before the strike, not only had Yellowstone M-3's and M-4's on the mainline but elderly 2-10-2‘s alive in the yards. . . . And in the East. Nickel Plate had been obliged to fire up 0-8-0’s for Conneaut, O., yard duty and there was talk the big Berkshires would be back on the line.

"Then Big Steel and the U.S.W. failed to agree, the mills shut down, and the steam engines were stored as rapidly as they had been steamed up.

"For steam the hour is late indeed. At the end of 1958 class 1 roads listed 1350 steam locomotives on their rosters vs. 32,014 at the end of 1948.

"Norfolk & Western publicly anticipates total dieselization by the end of the year. The only active power left is confined to the Pocahontas Division where a small stud of Y6 compound 2-8-8-2's is still working out of such terminals as Iaeger, Williamson, and Bluefield, W. Va., on mid-week mine runs. A few Mallets should be working into December and their number could temporarily inflate in late fall should a steel strike settlement boost mine output."

A few parts of the 3708 survive today.

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mike4023 Wrote:
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> A few parts of the 3708 survive today.

Those numbers sure look hand painted. What's the story with that number plate?

HotWater Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mike4023 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > A few parts of the 3708 survive today.
>
> Those numbers sure look hand painted. What's the
> story with that number plate?

The numbers on the Big Boy smokebox plates were cast as part of the plate. The Challenger smokebox plates were bolted on as delivered. But over the years, for a variety of reasons, replacement plates were needed, and the numbers were simply painted on. Here is an example, a zoomed view of 3716 at Salt Lake City in November 1955.

Also, the smokebox plate for 3935 shows the bolt pattern from the original plate.

I did an extensive study of these plates, hoping to develop the drawings needed to have a few 3D printed. But the project fell apart due to the cost of both development and production for such small quantities.

Don Strack

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