Railroaders' Nostalgia > Ogden Rail Museum

Had an opportunity to take a grandson to the UP museum in Ogden several years ago. It is one of the few places where you can see a UP Turbine "Big Blow" up close, as only three escaped the cutting torch. The museum also had rail cars belonging to the USAF that were used by SAC to assess the bombing accuracy of B-52 aircrews. 

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Big Blows were famous for a little known fact: Their volume of exhaust reached high enough to incapacitate and kill birds of all types.

ValvePilot Wrote:
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> Big Blows were famous for a little known fact:
> Their volume of exhaust reached high enough to
> incapacitate and kill birds of all types.

We called them "bird killers". It has been alleged that they should never be parked under highway overpasses while in operation. They could melt the asphalt.

ATSF3751 Wrote:
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> ValvePilot Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Big Blows were famous for a little known fact:
> > Their volume of exhaust reached high enough to
> > incapacitate and kill birds of all types.
>
> We called them "bird killers". It has been alleged
> that they should never be parked under highway
> overpasses while in operation. They could melt the
> asphalt.

I think the effects of the hot exhaust bouncing back towards the unit would be worse then what would happen to the overpass.

Once while working as a hostler in the shop here in Cheyenne I got to talk with a foreman about the turbines. He told me that one time they got a call from the dispatchers to add a turbine to a westbound. There was a derailment on the shop runaround track and so they had to bring the turbine thru the shop from the east to get it on the west side for the crew. Unfortunately, the only spare loco they had to move it was on the ground on the runaround. So he told me they fired it up, opened the doors on both ends of the shop and drove it thru. He said there were several broken light bulbs from the fixtures swinging around in the exhaust and a myriad of dead pidgeons all over the place. But they got the engine out and ready in time.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> Once while working as a hostler in the shop here
> in Cheyenne I got to talk with a foreman about the
> turbines. He told me that one time they got a call
> from the dispatchers to add a turbine to a
> westbound. There was a derailment on the shop
> runaround track and so they had to bring the
> turbine thru the shop from the east to get it on
> the west side for the crew. Unfortunately, the
> only spare loco they had to move it was on the
> ground on the runaround. So he told me they fired
> it up, opened the doors on both ends of the shop
> and drove it thru. He said there were several
> broken light bulbs from the fixtures swinging
> around in the exhaust and a myriad of dead
> pidgeons all over the place. But they got the
> engine out and ready in time.

I thought the turbines had a small diesel engine just for the hostling moves?

PHall Wrote:
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>
> I thought the turbines had a small diesel engine
> just for the hostling moves?

IIRC from the book I have, only the 3rd generation had a diesel engine in the lead unit.

jst3751 Wrote:
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> PHall Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > I thought the turbines had a small diesel
> engine
> > just for the hostling moves?
>
> IIRC from the book I have, only the 3rd generation
> had a diesel engine in the lead unit.

I've been inside the one on Display at Ogden and it indeed had a diesel engine in the "A" unit.

-Dave