Locomotives 2-8-2 #2200 and 4-8-2 #7003, are smoking up the joint with a heavy freight that they are dragging through the yard in 1939. I believe this is Omaha, Nebraska.
I love the big steam, can you not tell? (if the pixels are too high, would someone be so kind to make it smaller? I don't know that much yet)
Since Russell posted the Up 4-8-2 7003, I remembered I have some shots of her sister, 7002, from the collection of John McGovern, UP, courtesy of his daughter, Mary McGovern. I'm not sure what year this was, but look at the running gear on 7002 before they applied the streamlining. Looks like all roller bearing everything. Then UP streamlined her. 4-8-2 Mountain, or in the case of NY Central, Mohawk type locomotives were great workhorses, overshadowed by their sleek 4-6-4 and 4-8-4 sisters. UP, SP, NYC, Frisco and many other roads all enjoyed yeoman service from these engines.
It already happened, she holds steam, and is awaiting paint, and a break in run... This shot was her first steam-up since 1999, when she broke...
As I recall, they had both the 3985 and the 844 out in Sacramento, California for a rail fair. The 844 was just sitting on display all steamed up when one of the flues ruptured in her boiler releasing a spectacular cloud of steam. Fortunately none of the public at the fair were hurt. I believe one UP employee was slightly scalded. The UP steam crew had recently replaced all the boiler tubes but the new material they used was inferior to what was available 50 to 100 years ago. Most all steel products today use a good deal of recycled scrap metal in their content which is OK in most applications. To rebuild it this time they had to look long and hard and pay very high prices to get virgin steel tubing. Even the 3985 has been having problems. About a year ago they were bringing her down to Houston when they had to do a field repair in St. Louis. On looking in the fire box they noticed one of the syphon tubes had a huge blister on it. The repair was lots of fun in the cold out doors with no round house. To get her fired up again after the repair they had tarps, heaters and electric blankets draped all over trying to thaw out all the frozen parts. Condensed steam everywhere had turned to ice, jamming up everything from air pumps to generators.
Sounds scary. It probably blew back through the other flues, into the firebox and then the cab. Now I begin to wonder of other potential failures. Natural gas piping for example. I sure hope all the other steam restoration groups have been able to avoid this possible problem! Boxcab E50
