Backtracking to the Age of Steam Engines

C H E Y E N N E, Wyo., April 14, 2001 -- There it was — steam locomotive 3985 — a vision out of the World War II years, all steamed up and ready to head out again from the Union Pacific Railroad Company's Cheyenne Roundhouse.

"I helped build that monster," said Herman Bloss of Greeley, Colo. "I was 16 years old working in the shops during the war, that's where this thing was built. We built maybe a couple of dozen of them. It draws a tear from me every time I see one of them go by. It takes me back so many years."

It's an oil burner, built in July 1943 to handle wartime traffic on the "Overland Route." It was one of 100 Challenger Class locomotives built for the Union Pacific by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, N.Y. It had a job to do, keeping American servicemen overseas supplied with munitions, clothing and food produced in the U.S. And, once upon a time, it helped moved domestic freight and passenger traffic on the Union Pacific.

The railroad named these engines Challengers because they challenged the Great Plains, the mountains, time and distance. Union Pacific 3985 is 121 feet long, painted in locomotive black, weighs close to 500 tons and is rated for 70 mph. For efficiency and traction, it has two sets of driving wheels, controlled with one throttle.

By and large, by the mid-1960s, steam locomotives like this disappeared from America's railroad lines. The diesel-electric locomotive was much more efficient and required less frequent maintenance. But steam locomotives still hold a prominent place in the popular imagination.

Back in the Saddle

It had been a few years since I earned a regular paycheck working for the Union Pacific Railroad. But when the call came — Do you want to learn how to fire one of our steam engines between Cheyenne and Denver? — of course I said yes.

After a quick rules refresher and locomotive engineer's certification review, I kissed my wife Kathleen goodbye at the roundhouse and climbed aboard.

At 9:30 in the morning, Union Pacific engineer Steve Lee gave two throaty steamboat-like blasts with the whistle, the engine began to chug, and we were off to Denver pulling 16 Union Pacific armor yellow passenger cars. The train would be used for the Cheyenne Frontier Rodeo Days Special.

"It's a beauty," said seven-year-old Barret Hayes, who came to see the train off. "I've only seen them in parks, and they're all shut down. I've never seen one working before."

Cattle, sheep and antelope grazing along the railroad looked up, and ran off as fast as they could when this monster engine came roaring along. I was wearing my railroad bib overalls, black brakemen lace-up boots and a B&O Railroad baseball cap. The last time I wore the gloves was as an engineer handling freight trains on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad across central Texas.

"Clear signal," Engineer Lee would call out as we approached a green wayside block signal. The regular fireman, Lyn Nystrom, and I would answer back, "Clear signal."

The Firing Reporter

The Union Pacific's Overland Route is double-, and even triple-tracked from Chicago to Salt Lake City. Just west of Cheyenne, in Borie, Wyo., the Denver line cuts off to the south.

"Okay, Mr. Walsh, sit down, you're going to learn to fire," Nystrom said.

Pointing to a red lever similar to a hacksaw handle, he said, "This is your water injector, advance it slowly, one click at a time."

A steam locomotive is like a giant tea kettle. A fuel-oil fire heats the boiler. Water is added, and through a series of valves, the steam moves the driving rods, which turn the wheels. The locomotive cab is filled with various hand-turned valves and gauges.

"See the pressure going down there?" Nystrom said, pointing to a gauge. "Give her a couple of notches that way," he added, pointing to a brass handle that controls the flow of fuel oil to the boiler.

After about 15 minutes, you get a feel for what you're doing.

"Watch the color of your smoke," Nystrom called out. "You want it to be gray."

I was giving the fire too much fuel, more than we needed, and we were making a thick, black greasy cloud blinding highway traffic on U.S. 85, which ran parallel to the tracks. I leaned out the cab to see what color my smoke was coming out the stack, and zip, my hat was gone, caught by the rushing wind.

"Not the first cap that's been lost out here," hollered Lee.

Old-Fashioned, Hard Work

I am realizing firing a steam engine is sweaty, oily hard work, more so than running a diesel-electric. But this is how the railroads powered trains for about 150 years.

"It's teamwork," Nystrom said, pointing to the engineer. "Every time he changes something over there, you've got two or three things to do over here."

"If he's coming off the throttle or setting the brakes, you don't need as much fuel," he added. "But always watch the water pressure."

Union Pacific 3985 was originally a coal-fired engine, but converted to fuel oil in l990. Retired Union Pacific Engineer Harvey Fallen, who started working for the railroad in 1943, recalled how backbreaking running steam engines could be.

"I think it depended a lot on the grade of coal we were using," he said. "Our clothing was overalls that you had to wash after every trip. You'd climb down after a trip and sometimes you were just covered in coal dust and sweat."

The Cheyenne-Denver line is relatively flat and straight. The only time I heard the once-familiar chugging of the engine is when we made a quick acceleration after stopping for a local freight train to clear up in a passing track. Otherwise, except for whistling for train crossings, the sound up in the cab was just a powerful roar.

‘Keep ‘Em Rolling’

During WWII the railroad ran with the motto "Keep 'Em Rolling." No telling how many tons of freight and passenger trains this engine pulled in its day, I thought.

"In 1943, my mother and I took a train trip from Oklahoma City to Denver where my father was stationed," recalled Janet Melfeld, who watched the train pass at the railroad station in Greeley. "I remember the big steam engine, the dining car, the berths, and all of the sailors, the soldiers, all of the servicemen. Even now, I wonder if they made it home from the war."

"It 's fun when it goes by," added 12-year-old Ashley Rudisill, also watching from the Greeley depot platform. "You can feel it, the power as it rushed by. It's awesome."

I realized I was living every kid's dream of a generation or so back. I was firing one of the big engines. Ranchers and farmers would wave, motorists waiting at railroad crossings would look in amazement. Some tried to outpace us on parallel roads. But at 60 mph they were no match for us. This is railroading, I thought.

Didn't every kid want to be an engineer on the Mainline, whistling through the night, pulling the Limited or the Chief?

"Yea, and we get paid for it," chuckled Lee. "It was certainly one of my dreams as a boy to be an engineer."

The Union Pacific houses five steam locomotives in Cheyenne. On the combined Union Pacific-Southern Pacific-Missouri Pacific system, the railroad rosters show close to 7,000 diesel-electric locomotives.

Of the Cheyenne steam engines, two see somewhat regular service, depending on traffic flows and the railroad's excursion schedule. Every once in a while on the Great Plains, the steam engine whistle still wails, and the big drivers roll.