Union Pacific Railroad's Legendary Steam Locomotive to Visit South Texas On a Heritage Tour Tour will take locomotive to several locations for the first time Omaha, Neb., March 15, 2010 – Union Pacific Railroad's historic steam locomotive, No. 844, will travel more than 3,500 miles from its base in Wyoming on a 28-day, eight-state tour to South Texas, to celebrate the railroad's history and heritage. The "Valley Eagle Heritage Tour" will begin April 2 when No. 844 leaves Cheyenne , Wyo. , and travels to North Platte , Neb. The locomotive will make overnight stops and be on display in the following cities before arriving back in Cheyenne April 29: North Platte, Neb.; Marysville, Parsons and Coffeyville , Kan. ; Kansas City, Mo.; McAlester, Okla.; Ft. Worth , Hearne, Houston , Bloomington , Raymondville, Harlingen , Palestine and Longview , Texas ; and North Little Rock and Van Buren , Ark. "This will be the first time No. 844 has operated south of Houston and we look forward to bringing a piece of living history to this part of our rail network," said Joe Adams, vice president of public affairs for Union Pacific's Southern Region. "Our steam locomotives play a special role in our collection of historical railroad equipment, which is the largest of any U. S. railroad."
Since I live 67 miles north of McAlester, and the former Katy runs thru Muskogee.......hmm............wonder if I can call in well that day?
I'm Headed to Cheyenne in the morning! I just got a call from a buddy and we are going to chase her from Cheyenne to Julesburg, CO. I'll post some photos tomorrow or Saturday!:thumbs_up:
Does anyone know yet what route she is going to be taking from Ft. Worth to Ennis? Will it come though Dallas or go around?
Looks like it will be traveling awful close to Dallas. I'd make the effort if I were there. Track 844 via GPS here.
Trip Report -Cheyenne to Lodgepole, NE A friend and I went to chase 844 on her way to North Platte. I live in Ft. Collins, CO about 40 miles south of Cheyenne. We got to Cheyenne about 7:30, planning on 844 rolling at 8:00. Rather than waiting downtown, we went to the east side of Cheyenne to catch her as she accelerated up to speed. The only problem, Cheyenne was in getting snow with 40 mph winds, so we had a ground blizzard. Here is the first view we had of her. I was surprised, they didn't have many cars in tow. We hopped back in the car and headed east, the only problem, I-80 was icy and we could not go the speed limit. Finally east of Burns we were on clear roads and could get up to speed. The 844 helped us out, they made an unplanned stop, so we were able to get ahead of her and in position for a run-by in Pine Bluffs, WY. To be continued...
Valley Eagle blowing through Pine Bluffs WY The weather in Pine Bluffs was sunny when we arrived, but had begun snowing with a strong wind from the north. The snow was blowing horizontally, but we were still in Wyoming, so why am I surprised? We thought that she would slow down coming through town, but when we saw her coming, we realized our error in judgment! She was coming fast and I just kept shooting! I remember thinking "I hope the guys on Trainboard enjoy this! About this time, I realized I was about to be swallowed by the smoke!! Also notice in the photo below the pidgeon that is about to be doing some IFR flight! He is just above the left smoke deflector. After we got smoked out, my buddy and I were yelling and laughing! That was an unbelievable experience! We packed up and made the run east, hoping to get ahead of him before Sydney, but that didn't work, so we headed to Lodgepole, NE, where they were taking a quick stop for a little grease job on the journals. To be Continued.....
We got ahead of 844 and were waiting for her in Lodgepole, NE (I didn't even know there WAS a Lodgepole, Ne!). She just came to a stop and the crew is starting to pile out of the cars. Before starting the work, the blew down the condensate. It was not snowing in Lodgepole, but it was cold, so the steam made great clouds! Now the worker bees came out and went to work After all the work, the engineer blew down the steam line again, getting ready to head east To be continued...
It was time for the Valley Eagle to head east for North Platte. They started opening the throttle and creeping out. It was time for us to part company with 844 and head for home. Farewell 844, have a great trip! I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them! I have more photos on my PBase website: chasing_the_northern_4-2-10 Photo Gallery by Dan St.John at pbase.com
Great photos! I hope I can contribute something at least half as interesting when she makes it down to Texas.
Yes, excellent photos dstjohn! I hope we'll see more media from others as 844 journeys on. If I may, I'd like to share a video of 844 recorded through Nebraska back in 2006. I've had this video on YouTube for a few years now, however just recently re-discovered the raw video on my computer. With 844 on the move, I felt it fitting to replace the old YouTube video with this much better quality video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwQtteJywwo Enjoy!
844 is scheduled for a stop along Railroad Street in Navasota, TX tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 10am. I am going to try to be there with camera in hand!
Well, 844 and company stopped in Muskogee Thursday for servicing, and I got shots of this locomotive as well as the whole train. Go here for the album in Railimages. Here is a video of train SPAMC racing through Chase on ex-KO&G trackage heading into Muskogee
dstjohn, thanks for that great coverage of 844, and FriscoBob, man you did good. I like seeing the engine with people all clustered around, as it really is when they stop for a while. You captured Mr. Nystrom there, too. You know, this is what I enjoyed most about Trainboard back in Genesis, great coverage of steam ops on real railroads. :tb-biggrin:
