Nostalgia & History > The Wreck of UP #4005 - 60th Anniv. 4-27-13

Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary since this un-excuseable and fatal accident in Red Desert, WY of the UP 4005 "Big Boy". Here is the link from the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver relating to the engine, crew, and the fatal event.
http://www.forneymuseum.org/News_BigBoyWreck.html

I was just a junior high Boy Scout in 1953, writing to the UPRR at Omaha, NE for free lithograph pictures of the "Big Boy" and other locos that were advertised in the Boys Life scouting magazine when this happened. Living in the High Plains of western Kansas and lacking the ability to see a UP articulated loco was only a dream that never came true during the active lifetime of these monster sized engines. Thank God for the Forney Museum in Denver and other sites that have been able to preserve the Big Boys around the country for static displays at least. The next best thing was seeing the UP 3985 Challenger operate in the Kansas City area in recent years and the UP 844 when it operated on the Golden State Line a half decade ago.

Man, where has the time gone!!?? And also, where has society gone, when you could get freeby stuff from the railroads...and now the Boy Scouts being challenged with certain membership issues. Now for the similar lithos, it's hoping you can find a UP calendar as the New Year comes along or having to spend what would have bought 120 plus ice cream cones or God only knows how many chunks of Fleer bubble gum! I do gotta' admit, the new digital pics on the calendars and on TO's are many, many times better quality, so not all is lost to time.

Have a L@@K at the Forney link for the #4005 story and may the families of these crewman once again meet them in eternity!

Thanks for the story.

The Boy Scouts are being encouraged to lose their morals as many other groups have done in the effort to not exclude anyone. Unfortunately many groups are founded in the effort to FOSTER certain beliefs and many today feel like that shouldn't be so.

Closest I've come to an operating big boy is watching the challenger pass through Indiana about 20 years ago or so. Only was able to see one runby as it hauled booty on its trip back west after its Santa trips in L&N country. It is intriguing to say the least to hear about UP's apparent interest in restoring a big boy to steam.

Actually... the Boy Scouts don't have to do anything - including accepting money from taxes. When they accept money from everyone, they have to include everyone. If they don't take public money, they are not "forced" to modify their policies.

It should be noted that there are FAR more pedophilia men who are (or at least claim to be) heterosexual than there are homosexual instances. And...it's not the end of the world. Not even "as we know it".

rrman6 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary since this
> un-excuseable and fatal accident in Red Desert, WY
> of the UP 4005 "Big Boy". Here is the link from
> the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver
> relating to the engine, crew, and the fatal
> event.
> http://www.forneymuseum.org/News_BigBoyWreck.html
>

Not to remove any due from the rememberance of this tragic accident, when is a fatal accident ever excuseable?

Perhaps best to leave the political arena to the politicos .Nothing good can come from it.

I second that motion. Nothing in the original post warranted the rant about the current state of the scouts.

Let's see... The thread subject is the Wreck of UP #4005. It's morphed into yet another tread I'll cease to read...