Railhead: Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyoming

Railhead: Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyoming:

Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyoming, May 17, 2019

The Union Pacific 4014 is one of the twenty five legendary "Big Boy" locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company for the Union Pacific between 1941 and 1944.  They were the largest steam engines ever built.  4014 is one of 4884-1 class engines, that being the first class, the second being the 4884-2 class.  Only eight of the twenty five Big Boys remain and only this one, 4014, built in 1941, is in running condition.

It wasn't always.  Up until this year, none of the Big Boys, retired in 1959, were operational.  4014 in fact had been donated by the Union Pacific to a museum upon its retirement. But the UP reacquired the giant engine a few years ago and rebuilt it, and has returned it to excursion service.  Its first run in that role took place last week on a trip to Utah, and we photographed here in the Union Pacific rail yard in Laramie where it was on a day off before its anticipated return to its home in Cheyenne which will take place today, May 19, 2019.

The massive articulated train is truly a legend.

The 4014 was built as a coal fired train, with the difficult hilly terrain of the Union Pacific in Wyoming in mind.  The conversion, however, restores to steam service, but as a fuel oil burning engine.  Indeed, that type of conversion was common for steam engines in their later years.

The 4014 is a four cylinder engine that was designed to have a stable speed of up to 80 mph, although it was most efficient at 35 mph.  It was designed for freight service.

The Big Boy was traveling with two other engines in its train, one being the Union Pacific 844, and the other being a diesel engine.  I'm not certain why the 844 was part of the train, but the diesel engine was likely in it in case something broke down.  Nothing did, and the maiden run of the restored locomotive was a success.

The 844 is a Northern type engine built in 1944.  The FEF-3 class engine was one of ten that were built by the American Locomotive Company. While used for everything, the FEF series were designed for high speed passenger operations and were designed to run as fast as 120 mph.

The 844 was in service all the way until 1960. During its final years it was a fast freight locomotive.  844 never left service and after being rebuilt in 1960 it went into excursion service for the Union Pacific.

On its maiden run, the UP had a variety of class late rail cars pulled by the train, each of which is named.

Blog Mirror. NPR: White Lies

Given the Casper connection, something of interest:

On the night of March 9, 1965, a white Unitarian minister named James Reeb was attacked on the streets of Selma by a gang of men who resented his support of black civil rights activists. Reeb died shortly after. Three men were charged with murder, but were acquitted by an all-white jury. For over fifty years, the murder remained unsolved. By investigating this Civil Rights-era cold case, hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace uncover the truth about the murder of James Reeb. In the process, they confront the systems of oppression and violence that allowed the murder to happen and kept it from being solved for so long. The investigation into Reeb’s death is as much a personal meditation on our relationship to the past as it is a search for justice that’s been long delayed.

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Updates for April, 2019

Move slide from 1912.

1.  April 5, 1919.  Casper newspaper added.

2.  April 12, 1919.  Newspapers added.

3.  April 18, 1919.  Item about Osage post office added.

Rock Springs Coal.

Rock Springs has several coal related monuments and items on a park downtown located where it's old classic railroad depot is located.  Indeed, the park borders on being a little busy as a result.

This is one of the items there, a State of Wyoming historical sign.  If you click on the photo, you can get a larger version of the photo.

Coal was a major industry in the town, and indeed an entrance to an underground mine, now decommissioned, is very near this park.  In fact, the development of the town over the former underground shafts and tunnels has proven to be a bit of a problem in later years.

A Monument To The Union Pacific No. 1 Mine.

A monument, in Rock Springs, Wyoming, to the first mine in that district.

The mine was, not too surprisingly, a Union Pacific mine. Started in 1868, the coal fueled the transcontinental railroad.

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The Powder River and the Red Trail, Montana

These are admittedly not Wyoming photographs, but from southeastern Montana.  When I stopped at this location one afternoon in February I didn't know what the historical marker would entail.

I'm glad that I did. While my sign photos are oddly not quite in focus, it's an interesting looking area.

And while this doesn't depict Wyoming, its a region connected with the state, and on a river which runs through  much of Wyoming at that.

Richard's (Reshaw's) Bridge, Evansville Wyoming.

Reshaw's Bridge, or more correctly Richard's Bridge, was a frontier North Platte River crossing only a few miles downstream from Platte Bridge and like it, it was guarded by a contingent of soldiers.  As noted in the plaque below, it ultimately closed in favor of the slightly newer Guinard's Bridge, which Richard bought, which ultimately came to be referred to as Platte Bridge. 

In 1866, after the bridge had been abandoned, it was dismantled by the soldiers stationed at Platte Bridge Station.

While Platte Bridge Station is remembered for the battle that occurred there, Reshaw's Bridge saw its fair share of action as well. 

Indeed, as we've discussed previously on one of our companion blogs, which we'll link in here below, bodies exhumed at the post when Evansville's water treatment facility was built include what are certainly two soldiers and a pioneer woman.  Generally, the Army would reclaim bodies of troops, but my minor efforts to inform the Army of this failed.

From our companion blog, Some Gave All:

Richard's Bridge Cemetary Mausoleum, Evansville Wyoming

This mausoleum was built when at least part of the cemetery of the military post at Richards Bridge was located at the time Evansville, Wyoming built a water plant near the river. The former location of the Frontier Era bridge across the North Platte had not been precisely known up until that time. When three bodies, believed to be the bodies of two soldiers and one woman, were disinterred they were reburied here, on the grounds of the Evansville grade school. The school grounds were the only nearby public land at the time.

This creates a very odd situation in a variety of ways and the mausoleum is not well maintained. While worse fates could exists than spending eternity near a grade school, it is generally the case that the Army has recovered the lost remains of Frontier Era soldiers when they were located, and it would seem that moving these victims of Frontier conditions would be a positive thing to do.

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Updates for March, 2019

1.  March 7, 1919.  Cheyenne and Casper newspapers added.

2.  March 10, 1919.  Casper newspaper added.

3.  March 11, 1919.  Casper newspaper added.

4.  March 11, 2019.  Governor Gordon declared a state of emergency.

5.  March 13, 2019  Winter Storm Ulmer

6.  March 20, 1919  Cheyenne and Casper newspaper added.

7.  March 27, 1919  Casper newspaper with item about Mary Pickford added.

Camp Devin, Montana/Wyoming

These are rather wintery photographs of a place that was only occupied until late summer in 1878. So the pictures are unfair by their very nature, however, like a lot of photographs here, I take them when I go by them.

If you click on these photos you'll get the full, albeit short, story of Camp Devin.  It was a post Little Big Horn camp established just off (and I mean just off) the northern boundary of the Black Hills in 1878 in order to guard the construction of a telegraph line.

I don't know the reasoning behind the location of the post, but it was likely because the Black Hills themselves remained a real threat and, in terms of locating a camp ground, assuming that there's water near by, you couldn't ask for a flatter location.

The post location is likely slightly approximate.  The sign is a State of Wyoming sign, but the location is literally right on the Wyoming Montana border.

Updates for February 2019

1.  February 1, 1919.  Wyoming Stockman Farmer added.

2.  February 3, 1919.  Item on the Legislature and suffrage expanded.

3.  February 5, 2019.  2019 State of the Union text added.

4.  February 8, 1919.  Cheyenne newspaper added, magazine covers added, Red Cross donut girl added, photograph of Edwin Keith Thomas added.

5.  February 9, 1919.  Cheyenne newspaper added.

6.  February 10, 1919.  Casper and Laramie newspapers added.

7.  February 11, 1919.  Casper, Laramie and Cheyenne newspapers added.

8.  February 12, 1919.  Cheyenne newspapers added.

9.  February 13, 1919.  Casper newspaper added.

10.  February 13, 2019.  Establishment of Women's Suffrage Day.

11.  February 14, 1919.  Cheyenne, Laramie and Casper newspapers added.

12.  February 15, 1919.  Item on the State of Wyoming adopting its own prohibition bill added, item on the formation of the American Legion corrected.

13.  February 18, 1919.  Casper and Cheyenne newspapers added.

14.  February 22, 1919.  Casper newspaper added.

15.  February 24, 1919.  Cheyenne newspaper added.

16.  February 26, 1919.  Casper and Cheyenne newspapers added.

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