Big News

What a week for big news.It is so exciting that I can hardly breathe.  For many of you, the birth of a new Royal is a big deal, but for those of us that love the mechanical part of the world, that birth pales in comparison.  This week the Union Pacific announced it has reached an agreement to purchase retired UP #4014 from the Southern California Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society.  Even more important, the Union Pacific has announced they will bring this locomotive back into active service as part of their Heritage Fleet, probably by 2019.  Again, I can hardly breathe.

For those of you who are not up to speed on old steam locomotives, I will include a bit of information.  UP #4014 was a member of the class of locomotives referred to as “Big Boys.”  There were twenty-five of them built between 1941 and 1945 to handle heavy loads over mountain passes, but still be able to maintain reasonable speeds across flat ground.  They weighed in at 1.25 million pounds, standing just over 16 feet tall and 11 feet wide.

This is not a project for the Toybox. The shop this will go into is the Union Pacific Steam shop in Cheyenne, WY.  It is the home of a couple of active steam locomotives, including the Union Pacific 844 which is the only steam locomotive that has never been retired.  I will get back to that in a moment.  If you are interested in the shop itself, there are several videos (here's one) on the Internet, showing the space and the work they do.  The most amazing thing about watching any of their videos is the same thing I marvel at in any shop, whether wood or auto body, etc.  The people who work in this shop handle the items around them as though it is just no big deal.  They are handling thousands of tons, working with components that have not been apart in decades, and they just get the work done.

You see the same type of behavior if you stop by a local cabinet shop.  The work that the people in there do on a regular basis happens so effortlessly that it seems as normal as breathing.  For those of us who “dabble” in the same areas, the work is much more challenging.  When we reach the point where one of the tasks becomes more natural for us, it is time to celebrate.

Turning to the overall discussion of the Union Pacific and the fact that they have a steam fleet, or a steam locomotive that has never been retired, I think this is a phenomenal feat.  Over all of the years that they could have made the economic decision to retire the fleet and move on, they were steadfast enough to recognize the value and the importance of what they had.  They did not do what could have been the easier thing to do, and because of that, today we have living artifacts of a day gone by.  Kudos to all of the Union Pacific leadership.  I know that I need to be more mindful of tomorrow’s treasures today than I have been and they are a good example.

If that were not enough to have happened this week, I also found out that there is a list of Historical Mechanical Engineering Landmarks.  Who knew?  This really looks like a “bucket list” of places I need to visit.  The first one on the list, the powerhouse for the cable car system in San Francisco is a place I've been, and one of the greatest tours that I have ever been on.  If this is any indication of what the rest of these may be, I will need to figure out how to take more vacations.  There are currently 251 landmarks listed and I am sure that there are more out there vying for placement.  One of the listings is in Iowa, the Hart Parr tractor in Charles City.  Obviously I have more research to do there.

It seems so strange that I would always have been so interested in mechanical items, and out of that environment, I developed an Electrical Engineer in my son.  I think that this means that I need to listen to him and ask questions as there must be some kind of a connection there.  I need to spend time and see if the world of electricity and power interests me as much.  First though, I need to try to understand it.

It looks as if we are going to have a beautiful weekend to get some work done at the Toybox.  This is a really good thing. The project list is starting to overrun my ability to keep up.  Of course, that is not that bad a problem to have.  Have a great week.