For Anti-Rail Fans

[kevin_standlee]

Not everyone loves trains the way I do.



The sign can be seen on trailers in the industrial park near where I work in the Bay Area. It means that the trailer must not be loaded on intermodal rail equipment because it's not built to handle the higher loads encountered in rail service. I find it amusing that whoever designed the sign decided to use a steam locomotive to indicate a train. As it happens, there has been at least one case of Union Pacific steam hauling an intermodal freight, when the UP Steam Team were taking one of their steamers out for a shakedown run after repairs. The Steam Team likes to pull their weight, and it's best for the locomotive to run under load, so when there happened to be a train coming through Cheyenne needing a crew change, they tacked on the steamer and took it up the line. I wish I'd seen that one.

As with most of my photos, this one is CC-licensed if you want it. I shot it while out taking a walk after lunch. It turns out that per my pedometer, one lap around the logistics park in which I work is about 2 km.

Comments

Steam happens...

[timill]

I found 4 occasions on the net:
3 from http://www.steamlocomotive.com/lastofsteam.php

Union Pacific On August 1, 1990, UP dispatched Challenger 4-6-6-4 #3985 on stack train LAAP-1 from Cheyenne to North Platte. Three diesels brought the train into Cheyenne, but 3985 took it the rest of the way unassisted. Train consisted of 143 loaded double stack cars, for 7657 tons. 3985 maintained track speeds of 65 mph for the majority of the trip, and crested Archer Hill at 35 mph.
August 1, 1990
Cheyenne, WY
Source: Railfan & Railroad Nov 1990

Union Pacific During a dead-head move on September 18, 1990, UP dispatched 4-6-6-4 #3985 on Denver-North Platte manifest DENP-17, 16 loads and 56 empties. Work included stopping at several locations to do pick-ups and set-outs.
September 18, 1990
Denver, CO
Source: Railfan & Railroad Dec 1990

Union Pacific During another dead-head move, this one on November 4, 1996, 4-8-4 #844 is called to assist a stalled freight, after one of the diesel shut down. 844 worked as a rear-end helper during the move, which was recorded only by UP steam program personnel
November 4, 1996
Source: Railfan & Railroad, March 1997


and one from trains.com
http://cs.trains.com/ctr/f/3/p/152305/1684968.aspx
A second incident is described in the October, 1998 and January, 1999 issues of TRAINS magazine.

UP 844 was on its annual shakedown run to LaSalle, CO on July 8, 1998, when an intermodal freight proceeding it with a single SD60M (UP 6155) died approaching Nunn, CO. The intermodal train was able to coast down grade into Nunn where the UP 844 could get around it and couple to the front of UP 6155 and pull the dead engine and train to LaSalle where replacement power was waiting.

"Steam Rescues Diesel"
TRAINS Magazine, October 1998, p.32-33
and
"When UP's 4-8-4 comes to the rescue"
TRAINS Magazine, January 1999, p.106-107


The 1996 incident is the only one I had actual knowledge of: Bob Kreiger was the engineer in question and talked about it on Compuserve's TrainNet forum at the time.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update!

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

People who know I like trains keep giving me steam-related paraphernalia. I smile and thank them, as Those Who Really Know Me look on with amusement because they know my thing is diesel.

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

I should probably add diesel and more recently (like the last 20 years or so) also electric.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

And for Lisa it's also electric. She'd be delighted if UP electrified its main line. OTOH, she recognizes that the traffic is too light so far. Her hoped-for future: natural-gas turbine engines. (The current flirtation with natural gas conversion of existing diesels is but a transition period while the infrastructure necessary to distribute gas to terminals is built up and to re-use older engine, rather than having to go through the pain of scrapping the entire fleet fairly quickly as during the steam-to-diesel changeover. Once you have that, gas turbines are a relatively easy step.)

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

From a graphic design standpoint I think it's a good choice. No, that's not current equipment for intermodal rail use. But it is a silhouette that's instantly recognizable and can't be mistaken for anything else.

For similar reasons my word processor's 'save' icon is a floppy disk and my celphone's 'make a telephone call' icon looks nothing like the actual phone.