![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeWe took a little longer packing out of the hotel room than intended, and I had misread the schedule for the Big Boy at Carlin, so once we left the hotel, we had to skip my stop at Starbucks and simply get moving. However, doing so meant that we got some bonus pictures and made it to the train's first stop of the day on time.
Just west of Elko, we caught up to the Big Boy and its train. The train includes freight cars (all cleaned and repainted) to provide braking and a diesel locomotive as an emergency backup if needed and also to provide dynamic braking on down grades.
We scooted on ahead to Carlin and were at the rail yard when the Big Boy eased in for the first of its two scheduled "whistle stops" of the day.
There were plenty of people here to come look at the locomotive during its 30-minute stop. If I understand things correctly, these "whistle stops" are not only places to show off the locomotive, but also times when the crew can inspect the locomotive and the rest of its train.
Among the cars in the consist of this train is the Art Lockman, which is a mobile workshop with tools and parts for regular maintenance and for repairs on the road. When steam ruled the rails, there were stations every hundred miles or so where engines could be serviced, but nowadays these big steam trips need to be very self-sufficient.
These two yellow cars running ahead of the diesel and behind the Big Boy and its tender are auxiliary water tenders. The Big Boy, which was originally built as a coal-burner, was converted to run on heavy fuel oil when it was restored. The tender behind the engine can hold enough oil to run for a long distance, but it drinks a lot of water, and there are no longer water tanks along the way. These two extra water tenders were originally fuel tenders for Union Pacific's massive oil-turbine engines that it ran in the 1960. They have been converted into water tenders so that the locomotive can make a day's run without having to stop for water.
When the 4000 series locomotives were under construction at the American Locomotive Company works in Schenectady, New York, someone chalked "Big Boy" on the front of the smoke box, and this nickname stuck as the moniker for this series of huge locomotives. Nowadays, the UP Steam Team make it a practice to keep the name chalked up on the locomotive's nose.
A few minutes before the train left Carlin, we jumped ahead to a grade crossing of NV-278 just before it crosses the Humboldt River. Here we got this shot of the train picking up speed as it pulled out of Carlin. While the locomotive normally runs with relatively little smoke (known as "keeping a clean stack"), when it needs to accelerate away from a stop, it is apt to be a little smoky; however, that makes railfan photographers happy.
It's not so obvious in this photo, but this area had a whole lot of Mormon crickets, which have been infesting eastern Nevada and are a great nuisance. There were not as many here as when we passed through last year, when it was nearly impossible to walk without stepping on them. but there were enough in the area that there were signs on I-80 warning of crickets on roadway and how slick they can make the roads.
While others chased the train to various locations along the way, we jumped ahead to Argenta, east of Battle Mountain, to stake out a spot.
It was very hot. A black camera in the sun is not a good thing. Lisa covered the camera to try and prevent it from overheating while we waited for the train. Meanwhile, other people started showing up to take their photos.
The Big Boy was not working as hard or going as fast as it could have done, but it was still impressive.
We got back on I-80 to jump ahead to Battle Mountain, but others were pacing the train on the frontage road (old US-40). We paced the pacers but did not tie up traffic. Besides, we were both very thirsty and wanted to give ourselves enough time to pick up something to drink at Battle Mountain.
There was another big crowd at Battle Mountain. We walked up to the front in the hope of getting footage of the train leaving.
While I was framing photos with my camera, I felt some weight on my legs and feet. Looking down, I saw that this dog had decided to lie down on my feet. Her owner was standing a short distance away holding the other end of the leash. I decided to leave the dog alone until I was was ready to go.
Standing so close to the engine meant that I got the full blast of its deep-throated steam whistle before it eased its way out of town. We stayed behind letting the crowd disperse (and the dog's owner retrieve her) before leaving, stopping for more drinks, and getting on the road to Winnemucca.
We caught up to the train near Winnemucca, and considered trying to chase it into the rail yard there, but we were both getting hungry and tried, so we decided to go to dinner instead.
We went once again to Winners Casino, where they know that their all-you-can-eat spaghetti is all-you-can-eat. We ended up ordering more than we could eat, with both of us ending up with about half a serving left over. To our surprise and pleasure, they offered us to-go boxes for those two half-servings. We're used to AYCE not allowing any take-out, but this does confirm what nice people work here.
Had we not spent the day out in the sun chasing a train, we would have been home long before we refueled the Astro and left Winnemucca. Lisa had been driving most of today but had run out of energy as we neared Winnemucca — so much so that she had to stop on a wide spot of shoulder to have me take over driving. While I had expected that all of the caffeine I'd been drinking would keep me going for the remaining 215 km (135 mi), after a while, I found myself starting to regret having not holed up for the night at Winnemucca and going back home the next day after my mid-morning team meeting. It would not have been the first time that we bailed out relatively close to home.
Despite this bout of "get-home-itis," a disease that sometimes has proved fatal, we did manage to get home around 6:30 PM. There we found our home was almost uninhabitable from the heat.
The thermometer in the living room displayed 33°C, and I suspect it was actually hotter. I refilled the swamp cooler with water, as did Lisa for the cooler on the travel trailer (which cools faster because it's so much smaller), and we unloaded the minivan. Lisa got to sleep as soon as the trailer cooled down. It took me longer because it's more difficult to cool the main house, but eventually I did get to sleep.
Being able to tackle this bonus rail-fanning on the Westercon trip was a real surprise. Our original plans had been to stay in SLC on Sunday, drive to Elko on Monday, then home on Tuesday. However, because I need to conserve PTO for the Worldcon trip, I had to cut the trip back by one day. It was only after we did so that we learned of the UP Big Boy trip, the schedule for which matched up well with our Elko-to-home leg of the trip. Even though we got very hot and I got sunburn despite wearing lots of sunscreen, we're glad we did it.
And as it happens, the saga of chasing the Big Boy isn't over for us yet.
Just west of Elko, we caught up to the Big Boy and its train. The train includes freight cars (all cleaned and repainted) to provide braking and a diesel locomotive as an emergency backup if needed and also to provide dynamic braking on down grades.
We scooted on ahead to Carlin and were at the rail yard when the Big Boy eased in for the first of its two scheduled "whistle stops" of the day.
There were plenty of people here to come look at the locomotive during its 30-minute stop. If I understand things correctly, these "whistle stops" are not only places to show off the locomotive, but also times when the crew can inspect the locomotive and the rest of its train.
Among the cars in the consist of this train is the Art Lockman, which is a mobile workshop with tools and parts for regular maintenance and for repairs on the road. When steam ruled the rails, there were stations every hundred miles or so where engines could be serviced, but nowadays these big steam trips need to be very self-sufficient.
These two yellow cars running ahead of the diesel and behind the Big Boy and its tender are auxiliary water tenders. The Big Boy, which was originally built as a coal-burner, was converted to run on heavy fuel oil when it was restored. The tender behind the engine can hold enough oil to run for a long distance, but it drinks a lot of water, and there are no longer water tanks along the way. These two extra water tenders were originally fuel tenders for Union Pacific's massive oil-turbine engines that it ran in the 1960. They have been converted into water tenders so that the locomotive can make a day's run without having to stop for water.
When the 4000 series locomotives were under construction at the American Locomotive Company works in Schenectady, New York, someone chalked "Big Boy" on the front of the smoke box, and this nickname stuck as the moniker for this series of huge locomotives. Nowadays, the UP Steam Team make it a practice to keep the name chalked up on the locomotive's nose.
A few minutes before the train left Carlin, we jumped ahead to a grade crossing of NV-278 just before it crosses the Humboldt River. Here we got this shot of the train picking up speed as it pulled out of Carlin. While the locomotive normally runs with relatively little smoke (known as "keeping a clean stack"), when it needs to accelerate away from a stop, it is apt to be a little smoky; however, that makes railfan photographers happy.
It's not so obvious in this photo, but this area had a whole lot of Mormon crickets, which have been infesting eastern Nevada and are a great nuisance. There were not as many here as when we passed through last year, when it was nearly impossible to walk without stepping on them. but there were enough in the area that there were signs on I-80 warning of crickets on roadway and how slick they can make the roads.
While others chased the train to various locations along the way, we jumped ahead to Argenta, east of Battle Mountain, to stake out a spot.
It was very hot. A black camera in the sun is not a good thing. Lisa covered the camera to try and prevent it from overheating while we waited for the train. Meanwhile, other people started showing up to take their photos.
The Big Boy was not working as hard or going as fast as it could have done, but it was still impressive.
We got back on I-80 to jump ahead to Battle Mountain, but others were pacing the train on the frontage road (old US-40). We paced the pacers but did not tie up traffic. Besides, we were both very thirsty and wanted to give ourselves enough time to pick up something to drink at Battle Mountain.
There was another big crowd at Battle Mountain. We walked up to the front in the hope of getting footage of the train leaving.
While I was framing photos with my camera, I felt some weight on my legs and feet. Looking down, I saw that this dog had decided to lie down on my feet. Her owner was standing a short distance away holding the other end of the leash. I decided to leave the dog alone until I was was ready to go.
Standing so close to the engine meant that I got the full blast of its deep-throated steam whistle before it eased its way out of town. We stayed behind letting the crowd disperse (and the dog's owner retrieve her) before leaving, stopping for more drinks, and getting on the road to Winnemucca.
We caught up to the train near Winnemucca, and considered trying to chase it into the rail yard there, but we were both getting hungry and tried, so we decided to go to dinner instead.
We went once again to Winners Casino, where they know that their all-you-can-eat spaghetti is all-you-can-eat. We ended up ordering more than we could eat, with both of us ending up with about half a serving left over. To our surprise and pleasure, they offered us to-go boxes for those two half-servings. We're used to AYCE not allowing any take-out, but this does confirm what nice people work here.
Had we not spent the day out in the sun chasing a train, we would have been home long before we refueled the Astro and left Winnemucca. Lisa had been driving most of today but had run out of energy as we neared Winnemucca — so much so that she had to stop on a wide spot of shoulder to have me take over driving. While I had expected that all of the caffeine I'd been drinking would keep me going for the remaining 215 km (135 mi), after a while, I found myself starting to regret having not holed up for the night at Winnemucca and going back home the next day after my mid-morning team meeting. It would not have been the first time that we bailed out relatively close to home.
Despite this bout of "get-home-itis," a disease that sometimes has proved fatal, we did manage to get home around 6:30 PM. There we found our home was almost uninhabitable from the heat.
The thermometer in the living room displayed 33°C, and I suspect it was actually hotter. I refilled the swamp cooler with water, as did Lisa for the cooler on the travel trailer (which cools faster because it's so much smaller), and we unloaded the minivan. Lisa got to sleep as soon as the trailer cooled down. It took me longer because it's more difficult to cool the main house, but eventually I did get to sleep.
Being able to tackle this bonus rail-fanning on the Westercon trip was a real surprise. Our original plans had been to stay in SLC on Sunday, drive to Elko on Monday, then home on Tuesday. However, because I need to conserve PTO for the Worldcon trip, I had to cut the trip back by one day. It was only after we did so that we learned of the UP Big Boy trip, the schedule for which matched up well with our Elko-to-home leg of the trip. Even though we got very hot and I got sunburn despite wearing lots of sunscreen, we're glad we did it.
And as it happens, the saga of chasing the Big Boy isn't over for us yet.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-12 02:07 pm (UTC)TLDR: these were rebuilt for the GTEs from FEF-1 tenders.