This one is the best I've seen so far. Wonderful stack talk and love that steamboat whistle. Later in the evening they stopped to repack the right front piston rod. Don't know if they succeeded. No one has posted the return trip to the Cheyenne shops
That is REALLY cool!!! Thanks for posting the link. I had lost track of where they were at with the restoration. I'm wondering where Kato is with their new model.
Dragging the diesel along is understandable just in case something serious and unforeseen goes wrong. After all, it's the first time on the road in almost 60 years. Best to guard against anything that may have been overlooked. The need to repack a piston rod is a perfect, if relatively minor example of Mr. Murphy rearing his head. BTW, great signature, George.
I've been to see #4012 at Steamtown many times... now I'm gonna have to find the time and money for a trip out west to see #4014 in action. Good on UP for resurrecting another piece of history!
I am in no way...shape...or form a steam locomotive kinda guy. BUT...even I have to admit that was IMPRESSIVE !!
The diesel is not pushing or insurance, it's pulling. The diesel is in full dynamic braking to simulate the 100 car load 4014 was designed for. Otherwise the rod bearings would wear excessively not being loaded. I'll let a mechanical explain this because I don't understand why.
Although I hadn't thought of that, it does make sense. Just a guess here, but putting the rods under load would probably make for a smoother reversal of thrust. Without a load, they would likely tend to slap back and forth and not so much wear the bearings out as hammer them into excessive clearance. This possibly also accounts for the care needed when an engine is drifting.
At the beginning you can see its original coal tender lettered for 4014 parked to the left. They even reproduced the calk "graffiti" on the smoke box cover that an Alco worker scrawled on it giving the locomotive class its name.
The tender on the 4014 right now was converted to a oil tender in 1990 when the coal burning 3985 was starting too many brush fires along the line from the coal cinders. They pulled the oil injectors out of the 3977 on static display in North Platte along with the oil tank out of its tender for the conversion of the 3985. They will probably swap tenders again when the 3985 is finished with its overhaul in 2021 or 2022 and they convert the old 4014 tender to oil. Who knows they may do it sooner or give the old 4014 tender to the 3985. They are basically the same. They will have to fabricate an oil tank as I do not believe there are any old ones laying around in a park somewhere anymore.
There's certainly a distinctive cadence to the exhaust note. Toward the end of the video, is that an F3A followed by an E6B or E7B on the livestock train?
Did any 9000s survive? I have been watching these 4014's travels with great interest since I was unable to chase it.
