Nostalgia & History > Stored UP steam, Cheyenne?

Here is a photo by Dave England of stored UP steam. No date or location. Anscochrome mount that has separated, with "UP 3900's in storage" handwritten on the mount.

The quantities of locomotive suggest Cheyenne. In the original scan, it looks like the C&S bridge in the far distance. The fuel rack in the foreground may also be a clue.

For a date, my guess is the early 1960s, considering the string of freshly painted wooden cabooses, which did not receive their later 25xxx numbers until 1962.

Don Strack

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I first saw Cheyenne in 1961 and don't remember a single stored locomotive outdoors. Maybe late 50's, or maybe Council Bluffs?

Ed

If this view is looking NW the low hills in the far background could suggest Council Bluffs. The apparent sun angle & the angle of the RH servicing tracks fits
neatly with what I remember from trips there in the late 70's. This shot might have been taken around noon-mid afternoon, depending on the time of the year.
IMHO...

Lance

Looks like a little smoke on the left side.

I zoomed in as much as I could until the image became to fuzzy, but that bridge in the far background and the level embankment to the left of it sure look like the C&S bridge out by Tower A at the west end of the Cheyenne yard. The wood platform in the right foreground may be of some help to someone familiar with Cheyenne when this pic was taken. Also don't see any signal bridges looking west, but then again they may not have been installed at that time.

There were steam engines stored in Cheyenne when I first visited there in the late 60's, #'s 833, 5511 and 3985 were all ones that I shot there ... but certainly not in the quantity in this shot!

in the end I can't quite place the exact location this was shot from, if it is Cheyenne, what about you Bob3985, any help?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/13 09:06 by valmont.

c&s line is visable

Here is a cropped detail of the bridge in the distance.

Don Strack

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The presence of a 3800 in the storage line suggests a date in the late 1950s. These engines pounded out their last miles on the Nebraska Division and to find one in storage in Cheyenne after 1960 would have been unusual.

There were lots of dead engines there in 1962 when I was there in August. Mainly 4000s and early 4-6-6-4s. In the mid sixties, I chanced across three or four 800s. Wish I still had the negatives from that time.

John.

This might be a long shot but I believe that is Sydney, Nebraska. I am almost positive it is not Cheyenne. Cheyenne typically used to put all those dead locomotives on one track, and that track would be the farthest track to the left. I also think we would see the Cheyenne coal tower, or part of the train station to the right from that far back.

I also don't remember seeing that concrete platform to the right of the photo in Cheyenne or elsewhere and that is what I was concentrating on.

Go to Google maps and type in Sidney,NE. Then look at a satellite view of Sidney. Look between 8th and 9th avenues that both end on Hickory street. You will see that concrete platform along with much coal scattered around the yard. That area around the yard had more tracks at one time and was likely where those locomotives were stored. There is also a railroad bridge that crosses the tracks just East of that location much like the bridge in Cheyenne does.

The location of the picture in this post is still puzzling to me .... and Tomas provided some additional food for thought about the location.

I spent a lot of time in Cheyenne, and burned a ton of Kodachrome, but in trying to figure out the location of Don's picture I still kept coming back to that bridge in the background, but something was still puzzling me .... I don't remember that platform on the right in the picture either as Tomas mentioned, but it may have been gone by the time I first visited Cheyenne. Then this comment Tomas made "I also think we would see the Cheyenne coal tower, or part of the train station to the right from that far back" caused me to think what was still curious about the scene. I don't have any idea about the coal tower, but I do have some thoughts about the depot.

Take a look at the first pic I have posted here, I took it on Feb. 25, 1973, from the C&S bridge embankment. Notice where the depot is, the curve in the main tracks, and then look at the area to the right where the shop and roundhouse and the storage tracks are located. That area is where I shot some UP steamers (see photo #2 that I shot on Amtrak Day 1, May 1, 1971) stored on multiple tracks. Although it was mentioned that the UP stored steamers on one track at Cheyenne, at least in 1971, when there were only 3 or 4 of them, they were on multiple tracks.

I believe the view in Don's post is taken from over in the far right in my photo 1, looking west, and not taken over by the depot. The tracks in the foreground in Don's picture sure don't look like the mains, and given the curve in those mains, and how far the bridge is in the background, it doesn't seem likely that if the photographer was standing on the ground, over by the depot, when shooting the picture, that the C&S bridge would be visible (assuming this is Cheyenne). On the other hand if the photographer shot the pic from over on the far right as shown in my picture, then the bridge would be visible (and the signal bridge spanning the mains, which curve to the right, that I commented on, would be out of view to the right) and maybe this is Cheyenne after all.

But Council Bluffs and Sydney have also been cited ... OK, so whereizit?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/13 05:16 by valmont.

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Valmont it looks like you snapped the 3985 in the background on that last shot. One thing that did not make sense to me in the Sidney location is the type of bridge that is there. There is a bridge that crosses the mainline but it is not a truss bridge. It is steel deck girder. It might have been replaced at some point but the steel deck girder looks pretty old to me the last time I saw it in Sidney.

I love the pictures of dead steam! I wish we had more photos of the big steam on the dead tracks, and the scrapping of them.

Tomas Wrote:
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> Valmont it looks like you snapped the 3985 in the
> background on that last shot. One thing that did
> not make sense to me in the Sidney location is the
> type of bridge that is there. There is a bridge
> that crosses the mainline but it is not a truss
> bridge. It is steel deck girder. It might have
> been replaced at some point but the steel deck
> girder looks pretty old to me the last time I saw
> it in Sidney.
>
> I love the pictures of dead steam! I wish we had
> more photos of the big steam on the dead tracks,
> and the scrapping of them.

I would have to look to see if I shot the 3985 that day, but there was a pole alongside of it, so maybe not. I did, however, shoot it some time later, in a different spot in that immediate yard area ... here it is, still boarded up, on Feb. 25, 1973, the same say as the Tower A view I posted in this thread.

Also just noticed something, look at the twin pole with a horizontal cross member near the top in Don's picture, now look at the pole behind the 3985 in this one, looks like it could be the same, including the 2 appendages at either end of the cross member .... if Don's is Cheyenne, then the location makes sense, as I was standing south of where all those steam engines were, as there was a road that through the yard that went along the south side of those tracks and on past the roundhouse and shops. It still shows up on Google Earth, but it looks like some of those storage tracks are gone.

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In 1958 on a family vacation went through Cheyenne. I believe this
was in August. Somehow I got my father (who was no railfan) to drive
over to the Union Pacific yard. We went down a road in the yard on
the south side. There were many dead steam locomotives in one big line
next to the road.

I remember most of the power had canvas tarps for winter protection
between the cab and tender. Some tarps were ripped and ragged. What power was this??
Not big enough for Challenger or Big Boy.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/13 13:26 by CP8888.

I had to dig out and dust off my "History of Union pacific in Cheyenne" book, and I do believe that photo was shot in Cheyenne. After examining a track plan from Dec, 1943. I noticed that there was two platforms at that location. I looked at a satellite photo of Cheyenne on Google maps, and those platforms are long gone. However the small telephone poles are still there and would match the same location as the photo.

The location shot is a little confusing. The coaling tower is far out of sight. It is also bizarre that the map shows several tracks simply dead ending where those steam locomotives were parked. Obviously those tracks were used for storage instead of switching out cars.

You have a real jem of a photo there! I have never seen so many steam locomotives in one place awaiting their fate. It is almost like Union pacific has their own Barry scrap yard.

I have included a scan of the Cheyenne yard from 1943. Yard map credit goes out to Robert Darwin and the Union pacific railroad.

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Just in case no one's stated earlier, the shot is definitely in Cheyenne. Council Bluffs never stored that much big power (meaning 4-6-6-4's) and by the mid-late 1950's the power in Council Bluffs was nearly universally stored on north/south running tracks, south of the engine facilities. The actual "bluffs" would not have shown in any photos taken with a perspective similar to the photo at hand. Nor were there any servicing facilities of the sort seen in the foreground in that area of Council Bluffs.

This image was made near the Cheyenne coal chute, and this proximity is borne out by the concrete platform between rails immediately in front of camera and the line of CA-1 and other cabooses.

Wish this photo had a firm date attached to it but I'm thinking probably 1959 or 1960. Note that there is a 2-8-2 (rectangular tender). While 2206 did run as late as 1957 it's hard to believe she or any remaining sisters lasted in storage until 1962.

John Bush
Omaha



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/13 17:59 by 4-12-2.