UP: Steam Engine to Run Again

Introduction

From the "They're really going to do this?" department:

2019 Union Pacific Steam Schedule

Golden Spike 2019 Celebration in Ogden UT

The 10th & 11th of May, there will be a celebration in Ogden, UT for the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad. This was the high technology of it's day - it turned a cross-country trip from weeks by stagecoach or months by ship into a six day trip by land.  The westward expansion of the continent went into overdrive!  (See, I did pay attention to some of this stuff in school...) 😀
Now, the actual connection point was 60 miles west of Ogden, a little speck of high desert prairie called Promontory Summit.  We got lucky enough a few years ago to go there on a Saturday and actually watch a reenactment of the ceremony:

Dignitaries and workers are reenactors - locomotives were built from scratch; originals were scrapped.

The entire series of events that happened that day were described quite well by those who participated. 

The story on these replica locomotives is at the link below.

A lot more about the site can be found here:  Golden Spike National Historic Site

Story about the locomotives being ready for the event is here: Golden Spike Locomotive Refurbish


I didn't blog much about this activity specifically at that time, as it was a part of a larger trip we were on. It was definitely entertaining to watch the whole process for a couple of hours.
I'm not much of a photographer by any means, but I would like to watch 1.2 million pounds of 1940's locomotive technology run again, simply for grins and giggles. I'm reading elsewhere that there will be thousands of people, all wanting to watch a bit of history be reborn as well. If you've not seen news stories, I'm certain they will be coming up soon.  The people-watching could almost be as entertaining as watching the locomotive run.
The last of these specific steam locomotives were operational in the late 1950's, so there will be only a few that were alive at the time these were retired for diesel-electric locomotive power. Union Pacific has had a heritage fleet of functioning locomotives for several decades. During the centennial celebrations of Arizona statehood, another UP locomotive (844) came thru the area - photo below:

UP 844 - Pinal County, AZ - November, 2011 - Photo by G.T.

As I mentioned, one of those excursions was for the centennial of Arizona as a state, back in 2011.

Railfanning November 2011

The locomotive we'll be looking at and chasing around southern Wyoming in May is 50% larger than the one in the photo above.
This is a touring ride, so there will be two of us wandering around, hopeful that the weather in Wyoming is spring-like in early May.  Day one will get us from home to...we're gonna fly by the seat of our pants on the way up and on the way back.  It might be New Mexico, it might be Colorado.  I do have reservations in Wyoming; I made those way back in March. The ride back will begin when we think we've seen all we're gonna see. We'll point the bike south and head back to the deserts of home.

Pre-Ride Information & Updates

April 27, 2019 - still

I had the opportunity to get a couple of different sources of information cobbled together in order to have an approximate timeline of where to be, and (roughly) what time to be there. As I'm understanding it, this special train will have some level of precedence to get from point-to-point, as outlined at that very first link above. I'm suspecting that timing might change, but the days - unless there's something catastrophic - will be the same. Too many people from too many places want to see this machinery operate.

One of my sources (thanks, Geo.!) is quite familiar with this region - after all, it's home. So, between that, a professional rail-fan, and the skills necessary to put together a salient ride plan (think motorcycle rally planning...), I think I'm knowing where I need to be and roughly when I need to be there.

...along with tens of thousands of others, I'm sure.

I just learned that the schedule changed at the last minute. When the equipment moves to Ogden for the ceremonies, 4014 and 844 will go together! The initial plan had 844 going a few days ahead of 4014. Apparently the time is needed to get 4014 completed. I've read there's a lot riding on this being a successful trip for both locomotives - and for Union Pacific.In the past, there would be shake-down runs that would happen on some tracks between Greeley, CO and Cheyenne, WY. At the time of this writing, that shake-down run hasn't happened.
The plot thickens...

April 30, 2019

There's a few YouTube videos out there with some of the final preparations being done on the locomotive. Simply search for "UP 4014", and they should be there. Packing is nearly done...we leave tomorrow afternoon on a fairly leisurely ride up there.
Preliminary weather report...high 30's overnight, getting into the mid-60's during the day. The spring snow they're getting now will be gone, according to my contact up there.

Update May 1
May 1 update during the ride:

Easy ride up...left early since G got the full day off.

Approaching Roosevelt Lake, Gila County, Arizona

Nice picnic lunch at Roosevelt Lake, and a great ride - up to a point.

We sat on the highway for about 20 minutes. The CB made a comment that a backhoe was being righted from tipping over. When we passed by, it had been righted. To me, it looked like it sank due to the soft shoulder along the roadway.
Need to identify where we spend tomorrow night...a couple of opportunities to ride areas where we've not been before.
Overnight... It moved for the first time on it's own power:

YouTube video!

Update May 2
May 2 update during the ride:


Interesting way to start today's journey...won't go into details now, but just shy of the US-60/AZ-61 junction was what appeared to be a very serious vehicle wreck. We ended up having to backtrack, then find an alternate way to continue north -and east; staying away from the Interstate. If you saw the Spotwalla map, I did okay for an ad-hoc routing. Well, Google helped a bit.
So, we're here in Alamosa, CO. This place (found with Google...) is actually pretty nice. I'll be off to bed soon; have routing that needs to be planned a wee bit more than today was.

YouTube video! It moves on it's own power - today!

Update May 3
May 3 update during the ride:

This afternoon's detour was to see if (by chance) a steam engine would be working along the line typically used for testing & evaluation. We missed it by about twelve hours:
Greeley Colorado News Article!

I read about the excursion last night while eating lunch...
No problem, that was simply the dress rehearsal for tomorrow.
We did see the *other* big boy that's in a Cheyenne park...

Train doesn't start moving until 10:30, but we've scouted a couple of potential waiting points.
The two of us - and 20,000 others, I'd guess. Downtown is a zoo right now; glad I chose to stay on the west end of town.
My list of things to get done before tomorrow is getting lower...checking one more item off the list!

May 3 update 2 - 8:45PM MDT:

This evening, the occasional sounds of the 4014's whistle is heard nearly a mile away...or is it 844 being brought back to life for the festivities?
It's dark...and man that's one eerie sound!

May 4 update 1 - 7:15AM MDT:

Today's movements will be based on train movements, so it could be very erratic. There may also be times where we'll not be moving...like in just about an hour, when we'll go find a parking spot to watch the train leave town.

May 4 update 2 - 7:00AM MDT (May 5th):

Incredible...simply incredible. Obviously, my wife shot a lot more images I've yet to see, but here's a couple of my better ones:

I think we may be done...but a couple of hours will tell. There's a lot more to the story to write, but it'll wait a bit.

May 6 - 6:45AM MST:

Holbrook, AZ: arrived a bit after 8 PM local time; no dinner, just cleaned up and went to bed. My wife was a little concerned about the routing which was direct thru a lot of reservation...especially when the sunlight vanished with about an hour to go.
We'll be home early afternoon today. I'll have more images and commentary to add to this in a few days. Thanks to those that have been reading along.

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Update May 31
May 9 - Home! May 31 - The rest of the story is told!

NOTE: Quite a number of items had prevented me from completing the writing and posting of the post-ride story & photos until now.

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We got home the afternoon of the 6th, but from there, a couple of pressing issues had to be taken care of. I mean, I hadn't even looked at all of the images both my wife and I took for this trip.
So, the final issue was really resolved later (May 16), so we can now tell the rest of the story since I've finally seen the rest of the images we'd taken just a couple of days ago.

Day 1 - Home to Show Low, AZ 270 miles. Well, about half a day of riding. This recreated a ride we did long ago on our first "motorcycle tour" which was nearly this time twelve years ago. That was a long time ago...and a lot of things have changed since then.

Quick picnic lunch at Vineyard Canyon Picnic Site, Roosevelt Lake, Gila County, AZ

Approaching northern end of AZ-188, near AZ-87 (Beeline Hwy) junction

AZ-260, east of Payson, AZ - funny looking cactus in these parts!

You saw the photo above of our delay as they dug that backhoe out of the ditch.  We both needed a pit stop; this was handy.  Heber, AZ

Tonight's lodging within walking distance to dinner - terrific! Well, dinner was okay for me, but my wife wasn't impressed.

Day 2 - Show Low, AZ to Alamosa, CO (via Taylor, AZ, Grants, NM, and Counselor, NM) 470 miles - long day of riding. Above, I'd mentioned the dead-stop we came to just a mile before the junction we needed to take to continue our trek east. It must have been a bad wreck, as a medical chopper landed while we were there.

Never did actually determine what had happened, but I know of at least two ways to get around this; no need for me to sit here.

No fun at all just sitting and waiting...time to move!

After 30 minutes, I made the decision to go back to Show Low and determine the next direction. I stumbled on the county highway between Snowflake & Concho, AZ. It really didn't add a substantial amount of time to the ride that was lost while sitting there trying to figure out that next move.

County highway between Snowflake, AZ & Concho, AZ

Concho, AZ

St. Johns, AZ

East along AZ-61, approaching MM419.9

There's really nothing out here. As we're zipping along, heading toward the border between NM, and AZ, we go by MM419.9. That was deliberate...some of you will figure out the reason why, and some will not. Clever, ADOT, very clever.

EDIT: For those that may want a clue:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150820184544/http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/idaho/2015/08/18/idaho-replaces-mile-marker-420-with-4199-to-thwart-stoners/31928433/

Zuni, NM. Heavily posted regarding no photography without a permit.  Some tribal members consider photography of religious ceremonies to be inappropriate. 

El Malpais National Monument, NM

Grants, NM.  Food, fuel, then off into the wilderness of northern New Mexico!

Routing error here - Google says take a left, go 20-odd miles.  Four miles in, the road turns to dirt - groomed dirt, but still dirt.  Backtrack; try again.

Large items are transported regularly along these rather deserted highways, it seems.  I got the wave around by the trailing truck to pass at this point.  Don't need to tell me twice!

This is *really* out in the middle of no place!

Cuba, NM.  Never pass a good fuel opportunity when riding on roads like these.

Abiquiu, NM.  Time for a bio-break and a drink.  Still a bit of travel to go before the stop for the evening.

Haven't started to see the 'big' mountains just yet...but they have to be here somewhere!

Right side of image is a train for the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic RR - Chama, NM

Blanca Peak & Mt Lindsey approaching Alamosa, CO - photo by G.T.

As far as I could tell, we'd never really been in north-central New Mexico. Nope, not a lot out here at all, it would seem, but still a fun ride. It looks like, if you study the map, a few good motorcycle-friendly routes up here.

As we approached Colorado, the "14'ers" became apparent. Obviously, still a lot of snowfall left to melt at those kinds of elevations! I didn't realize the quantity of 14,000 peaks here in Colorado - over 50 of them!

Stayed in a nice place...got some food (meh!) and sleep.
Day 3 - Alamosa, CO to Cheyenne, WY, via Greeley, CO 370 miles.

Fuel before getting on the road - Alamosa, CO

The mountains that G took a picture of are these on the left.  Sun angle not helping!

Along US-160 - Colorado

Walsenburg, CO downtown

The leisure ride of 700-odd miles along non-Interstate highways has been fun, but it's now 'go-time'. Now, I had not checked in on the forum that I had been reading that was giving me information about the status of the locomotive...until lunch time. Now, I didn't really glean the information about how well it went, and didn't know if there would be another run before tomorrow. Twelve hours to late, but

Fuel, drink & bio-break - Colorado Springs, CO.

We made a stop because I'd seen a billboard for a clothing store that we don't have in AZ. It was fairly easy access to the freeway, so we stopped, picked up a couple of items, and continued on.

On our way toward Greeley, CO.  I think this rider was trying to impress me with his bike's sound - and the audio system.  Both were less-than-impressive to my wife and I.

near Eaton, CO. Flat, level, and a lot of crossings.  This is one of the most common places UP will do steam locomotive testing.

Downtown Cheyenne, WY.

Southbound US-85 bridge is where people gathered to watch the work of the steam crew near the summit of the bridge.

Think this *might* be a railroad town?  Northbound US-85 bridge, approaching downtown Cheyenne, WY.

Three days, nearly 1100 miles of touring riding - now for why we're here.

The story continues - click here for more!