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Union Pacific 3985 Excursion in Wyoming 7/11-13/2003

The idea for taking this Union Pacific steam excursion was from Trainorders.com since there was a link to the Sherman Hill Railroad Club that was putting on the trip. As soon as I saw my cheque was cashed, I started working on getting there at a reasonable price. Mike of AAA quoted me a flight cost of $345, but when he went to book it, suddenly it was $545. Not wanting to pay that much, I went to Priceline.com and put in a bid of $180. Their price from Orange County was $325, but if I bid $222, they could get me a flight from LAX. I bid that and received my flight for $214. Mike set up my Hertz rental car and I reserved two nights at the Express Inn in Cheyenne.

The above was all done in May so I went about my normal life until departure day.

A bit of background. The line east of Cheyenne was built in 1867 and the second mainline was completed in 1917. The western portion of what became the North Platte Cutoff was built from Yoder 62.7 miles to Egbert in 1928 and was the last major construction project on Union Pacific's Nebraska Subdivision. The line was built with heavy steel and a good roadbed so that it could be used when a derailment or track damage on the mainline between Egbert and North Platte resulted in re-routing trains over the whole Cutoff.

The day finally arrived and after packing, I was taken to the Santa Ana station by my mother and Pacific Surfliner 763 arrived on time. I sat in the cab car and finished labelling slide box number one from the Baltimore trip by the time we reached Fullerton then relaxed the rest of the way to Los Angeles, arriving there at 8:48 AM. I detrained and walked straight to a waiting Red Line train that took me to 7th and Metro, where I went upstairs to the Blue Line station where a train to Del Amo arrived and five minutes later, we were off south down the inbound track.

We stopped at Pico to pick up a whole southbound trainload of passengers as service on the outbound track had been suspended due to an accident on Washington Boulevard, which we passed a few miles later. A car tried to make a left hand turn in front of the LRV and lost badly. After stopping at Washington, we crossed over to the normal track then at Slauson, there were door problems, which cost us twelve minutes, so it was a slow trek to Rosa Parks.

I went upstairs to the Green Line and waited eight minutes for a westbound train that took me to the Aviation station, arriving there 10:15 AM, then went downstairs to wait for the Green Line Shuttle which arrived three minutes later and took me to Terminal 5. Since I had gone to Delta's website to print my boarding pass, I went straight through security in less than five minutes and was seated at the gate at 10:50 AM for my 1:00 PM flight to Salt Lake City then visited McDonald's for fries and a chocolate shake before labelling boxes two and three of my NRHS trip.

My seat was 43F so I boarded twenty-five minutes early which meant I labelled box four while waiting. The plane for this leg was a B-757 and we departed on time and taxied out to the east end. There was a All Nippon Airways jet in front of us before we took at 1:13 PM, flying out over Santa Monica Bay before banking to the left and going over the airport northeast. The inflight program was an episode of NBC's "Friends". About twenty-five minutes from Salt Lake City, it turned into the bumpiest and roughest flight I had taken to this point. Thoughts of my own death crossed my mind and you could see it on the other passengers' faces also. We touched down at 3:35 PM and I was glad to be back on Mother Earth, then taxied Gate D1 and from there I went to Gate D5 for my next flight.

I stopped to buy some Utah postcards for my classroom's fifty state postcard wall. Boarding commenced at 4:00 PM and I was boarded onto the MD-90 at 4:04, taking seat 25A before labelling box five and finishing before we left the gate on time then took off at 4:45. We climbed north as I saw the railroad crossing of the Great Salt Lake over which I once rode on the San Francisco Zephyr, before turning east with Ogden below. I managed to get box six labelled on a much smoother flight until we started our descent into Denver, where it became bumpy again, but not as bad as the previous flight. We touched down at 5:43 PM and I was very happy to be back on the ground.

I took the people mover train to the terminal and found the Hertz counter and was taken by bus to their facility. Once I received a Chevy Cavalier, I drove north taking a toll road and paying $1.75 twice to reach Interstate 25, which I took to Cheyenne and checked into the Express Inn before going to Arby's for some dinner and a gift shop for some Wyoming postcards. I returned to my room, called home and watched the Weather Channel's "Storm Watch" before calling it a night.

Up early for a great day of steam train riding, I walked over to the Village Inn for a Belgian waffle and a side of bacon then parking north of the depot and checked in, but received a statement from the Union Pacific Railroad. They had parked coal trains on the Yoder Line and we could not be going that way, but would be going to Laramie instead. Well, that was disappointing, but any day on a Union Pacific steam train is a great day no matter where you go.

I went up to the bridge over the yard to photograph the Cheyenne Union Depot, built in 1887.

Union Pacific freight train and a distant view of Union Pacific Challenger 3985 and our train being put together. After about an hour, I went back to join the boarding line.

Union Pacific Challenger 3985 was designed by Union Pacific and built in 1943 by the American Locomotive Company. It is one of 105 Challengers built for Union Pacific between 1936 and 1943 and was the only operating engine of its class in the world – the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive. 3985 last operated in "regular" train service in 1957. It was retired in 1962 and stored in the roundhouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming, until 1975 when it was placed on display near the Cheyenne depot. A group of Union Pacific employees volunteered their services to restore the locomotive to running condition in 1981.

The name Challenger was given to steam locomotives with a 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement. This means that they have four wheels in the leading "pilot" truck, which helps guide the locomotive into curves; two sets of six "driving" wheels, and finally, four "trailing" wheels, which support the rear of the engine and its massive firebox. Each set of driving wheels has its own steam cylinder. In essence, the result is two engines under one boiler. The frame of the locomotive is "articulated," or hinged, to allow it to go through curves. When watching the approaching locomotive go through a curve, you can see the boiler swing out left or right independently of the lower half of the engine, as the rear half of the locomotive remains in a straight direction until its wheels and frame are halfway through the curve.

Union Pacific at one time owned 105 Challenger locomotives. Built between 1936 and 1943, the Challengers were nearly 122 feet long and weighed more than one million pounds. They operated over most of the Union Pacific system, primarily in freight service, but a few were assigned to passenger trains operating through mountain territory to California and Oregon.

The Challengers were designed for fast freight service, but occasionally pulled passenger trains. 3985 originally burned coal and pulled a tender with a 32-ton capacity. In 1990, it was converted to use No. 5 oil. The top speed of 3985 is about 70 miles an hour.

The only other remaining Challenger, No. 3977, is on display in North Platte, Nebraska.

The consist of our train was Union Pacific 4-6-6-4 3985, former gas turbine tenders, now water cars 809 and 814, tool car "Art Lockman", dome-observation "City of San Francisco", dome "Colorado Eagle", head-end power car 207, dome coaches "Missouri River", "Challenger" and "Columbine", baggage car "Council Bluffs", coaches "Katy Flyer", "Sunshine Special", "City of Salina", "Portland Rose" and "Texas Eagle", concession car "Sherman Hill" and boiler/dormitory "Howard Fogg".

The consist was backwards as it was set up to go to Yoder. The Sherman Hill Model Railroad Club received a call from Union Pacific at 10:00 AM yesterday, informing them that they could not run the excursion to Yoder and that the its destination would have to be to Laramie. I give great credit to both the Union Pacific Steam Program and the Sherman Hill Model Railroad Club that the event was still going ahead.

At 8:30 AM, the Challenger reversed onto the consist then ten minutes later, it took off to the west end to wait for a passing freight to clear with a Department of Defense caboose then reversed the train down track one to the depot at 9:05 AM, I chose my coach window seat in the rear coach section of dome "Columbine" with all seats on the train facing backwards then labelled box number eight as we departed at 9:30 AM, when I finished the final slide as we neared the Colorado and Southern bridge.

I rode in the vestibule taking pictures as we proceeded to Speer. The rumour on the train was that they were going to wye the train at Speer, but we highballed through there, travelling on the number 3 track to Emkay as a freight was in the siding. Sherman Hill was green from the late spring rains and we made our way to Lynch as the hills started to be covered with pine trees before we continued to Laramie. The chasers were out in force so they obviously had learnt that we were going to Laramie.

Before Perkins, a double photo runby was held and on the first one was a wedge shot to try to keep people out of my picture.

There was no organized photo line so I went to the front of the line to capture Union Pacific 3985 coming out from behind the trees.

We reboarded and the geology became more impressive with rock outcroppings.

Just before Dale, we stopped for our next photo runby and freight train came from the west on number one main, making for an interesting view.

There was no photo organization here either and they even let a lady get in everyone's way as she stood down by the tracks in front of seventy-five photographers. I reboarded at "Texas Eagle" to visit the "Sherman Hill" before walking through the train to my seat. We departed Dale and proceeded through the Hermosa tunnels then at Hermosa, took the number three track through Red Buttes to Laramie. Bob Butler of Cle Elum, Washington, let me use his cell phone to call Let's Talk Trains and although the connection was poor, Richard Hamilton, the host, received his first call from a steam excursion. We arrived in the yard at Laramie at 12:50 PM on the west side so Union Pacific 3985 would have access to the wye.

Everyone detrained and waited for the wyeing move. Union Pacific 3985 was serviced and I had an opportunity to say hello to Lynn Nystrom and Steve Lee of the Steam Crew. About 1:35, Union Pacific 3985 started reversing around the wye.

After a throw of a switch, Union Pacific 3985 pulled forward.

While the steam engine was on its way to the front of our train, I went inside the rear car, "City of San Francisco" for a quick tour before walking through the train back to my seat. At 2:00 PM, we started back to Cheyenne but had to wait on orders then proceeded out of Laramie where the dispatcher had us routed on number one track to Hermosa, although we shuuld have been on number two track to detrain on the sunny side at the next runby location. We reversed back into the yard to wait for new orders then at 3:02 PM, departed for good on the number two track and climbed the western flank of Sherman Hill through Forelle to Colores. Here we stopped for a double photo runby and once again, no proper photo line was established due to lack of organization, but the lighting was perfect.

A Union Pacific stack train roared up track 1 as I used the rest of my film so the next runby would be on a new roll.

Horror of horrors! I had picked up a used roll of film out of my camera bag instead of a fresh one. Well, this became the first Union Pacific steam runby that I just watched and it was a beautiful sight. We continued up to Hermosa where we crossed over to the number one track then entered Hermosa Tunnel and steamed through Dale as I went to the vestibule as we climbed to Sherman and started our descent down the eastern flank towards Cheyenne. We made our way through the curves to short of Buford, where the last double photo runby occurred.

I climbed up on the rocks, as did some of the photographers and this time, no one could get in our way; this photo runby was in excellent light.

I relocated to a lower position on the rocks for the second photo runby. Back on the move again, the Buford ballast pits were no more and we stopped to let a female passenger off at the grade crossing. The dispatcher gave us a red signal for not reporting our hot boxes which had set off the detectors, but the crew had orders to ignore all of them. The rest of the journey to Cheyenne was relaxing and it was interesting watching the public photograph our train. Going though Borie, I was interested to see what was left of the Amtrak stop, where I paused on the Pioneer and once on the San Francisco Zephyr. It was still visible.

We slowly followed the freight train that we had passed us at Colores so we stopped and rolled the rest of the way into Cheyenne, arriving at 6:40 PM to end a great day of Union Pacific steam. Special thanks again to the Union Pacific Steam Crew and the Sherman Hill Model Railroad Club for an excellent trip and pulling it off. I was first off the train and out of the parking lot, then went to Arby's to pick up dinner then back at the hotel, I called a few people and relaxed before calling it a night.

After I enjoyed a continental breakfast, I drove back to Denver International Airport, fille the car and returned it to Hertz. The shuttle dropped me off at Delta, where I used a ticketing machine to get my boarding pass then security took less than ten minutes and I rode the train to Terminal C, bought some postcards and arrived at my gate at 9:15 AM for my 12:30 PM flight. Some Jethro Tull on my headphones passed most of the time.

I boarded seat 19A over the wing on this B737-800 aircraft and we left the gate on time and took off at 12:45 as I was listening to Crucial Rock hosted by Nikki Six of Motley Crue. It was a bumpy climb, something I will never get used to. My music took me to Salt Lake City and we touched down at 1:43 PM before taxing to Gate C12. My connecting flight was scheduled for D6, which meant a nice slow walk over to the D Terminal with a stop for a roast beef sandwich on the way. I sat near D6 at 2:13 PM for my 4:20 PM Flight and called my brother Bruce in Idaho to catch up with him.

I boarded the B-757 and took aisle seat 42C at 3:56 PM. I listened to "Funk Up Rock" as we took off at 4:31 PM. The inflight program was John Ritter's new comedy. From my aisle seat I looked out at the correct time to see Lake Mead and the Kelso sand dunes then we touched down at LAX at 4:56 PM and taxied to Gate 50B.

Once off the plane, I called Jeff Hartmann and he planned to meet me at 6:22 PM at the Norwalk Green Line station. I made my way out in front of Terminal 5 and flagged down the Green Line shuttle, which took me to the Aviation station at 5:32 PM. The train arrived at 5:40 PM and I listened to more Jethro Tull en route to Norwalk, arriving there at at 6:04 PM. Iwaited for Jeff as I was fifteen minutes early. He arrived at 6:22 PM and I was home by 6:53 PM, ending another exciting Union Pacific Steam excursion.

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