#FEF-3

[collinthenychudson]

Day 16: Union Pacific 844

Information from Wikipedia:

Union Pacific 844, also known as the "Living Legend", is a class "FEF-3" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad for its heritage fleet. Built in December 1944 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, New York, No. 844 is one of four surviving FEF Series locomotives and the only one in operation.

The locomotive operated in revenue service until 1959. It was stored while awaiting scrapping, along with the rest of the UP steam locomotive fleet. In 1960, railroad leaders recognized the benefits of having a steam program and retained No. 844 for special activities, the kernel of what has become the Union Pacific's heritage fleet. Today, it is one of UP's oldest serving locomotives and the only steam locomotive owned by a North American Class I railroad that has never been retired.

In 1944, Union Pacific and the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) collaborated on the FEF-3, a class of 10 locomotives designed to pull passenger trains at 90 mph. The FEF-3 could reach and regularly run at 120 mph; one locomotive reportedly pulled a 1,000-ton passenger train at 100 mph. All FEF classes were considered by the Union Pacific to be capable of producing between 4,000 and 5,000 drawbar horsepower.

The FEF-3 class represented the apex of dual-service steam locomotive development; funds and research were being concentrated into the development of diesel-electric locomotives. Originally designed to burn coal, they were converted to run on fuel oil in 1946. Like the earlier FEF-1 and FEF-2 classes, the FEF-3 locomotives were ultimately reassigned to freight service.

UP 844 was the last steam locomotive delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad, constructed as a member of the FEF-3 class of 4-8-4 "Northern" type locomotives. Upon its entry into service, the locomotive spent most of its career pulling a variety of passenger trains, such as the Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, Portland Rose and Challenger. From 1957 to 1959, UP 844 was reassigned to fast freight service in Nebraska when diesel-electric locomotives took over passenger service.

After commercial steam operations ended in 1959, the 844 and the rest of the FEF-3 class was placed into storage. Saved from scrapping in 1960, No. 844 was chosen for rebuilding and is now used on company and public excursion trains, along with hauling revenue freight trains during ferry moves.

Since 1960, No. 844 has run hundreds of thousands of miles as Union Pacific's publicity locomotive. The locomotive often pulled the annual Denver Post-sponsored Cheyenne Frontier Days train that ran round-trip from Cheyenne to Denver every July before it was discontinued in early 2019.

It appeared at Expo '74 in Spokane, Washington; the 1978 dedication of the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah; the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans; and the 50th anniversary celebration of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in 1989, when it performed a side-by-side run with Southern Pacific 4449. On February 14, 1975, it pulled Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr from Denver, Colorado to Cheyenne, Wyoming with a pair of EMD SDP40Fs. In 1981, it traveled to the opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, along with Union Pacific 3985, which had recently been restored to operational condition.

Over the weekend of October 14, 1990, No. 844 led a procession of special trains from Kansas City Union Station to Abilene, Kansas for World War II veterans to celebrate the 100th birthday of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The "Eisenhower Centennial Special" was composed of cars from the Union Pacific, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway business fleets, with additional passenger cars provided by the Norfolk Southern and Chicago and North Western railroads. Also present in Abilene was General Eisenhower's command train, code-named "Bayonet", including the British A4 steam locomotive No. 60008 and communication and staff cars from WWII's European Theater of Operations.

After the end of the 1991 excursion season, 844 was put in the shop for a major running gear overhaul in addition to other repairs. During that time, 844 was repainted from the passenger greyhound scheme to the freight black. It emerged from the shop in 1996.

On June 21, 1997, on the way to the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS)'s annual convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, 844 and Union Pacific's Executive E units pulled 18 passenger cars on the Union Pacific's soon-to-close Tennessee Pass line, which included tracks on a narrow canyon shelf along the Arkansas River.

On June 24, 1999, while on display during RailFair '99, one of the 844's boiler tubes failed, and the locomotive was subsequently towed dead back to Cheyenne by the recently-overhauled No. 3985. The tube was found to have been made of the wrong material during the overhaul in 1996, a discovery that prompted the replacement of the firebox in a complete overhaul that lasted from September 2001 to 2004. On September 9, 2004, the UP steam crew successfully test-fired the 4-8-4. It returned to operating service on November 10, 2004.

On May 18–19, 2007, No. 844 teamed with Southern Pacific 4449 to pull the "Puget Sound Excursion", a round trip from Tacoma to Everett on BNSF Railway tracks.

On June 25 and 26, 2010, it made an excursion trip to Milliken, Colorado's centennial celebration.

In September 2012, the locomotive was used in "UP 150", a celebration of Union Pacific's 150th anniversary celebration, hosted by the California State Railroad Museum. During that time, it also stopped at Walsenburg, Colorado for a night photo session, parked next to ex-Lake Superior and Ishpeming 2-8-0 “consolidation” 18, which was operated by the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad at the time, before that line was shut down.

In June 2013, the locomotive's gyrating Mars Light, installed in 1946, was removed because its mounting bolts had deteriorated. It was also announced that year that the 844 and 3985 would eventually be joined by a third steam locomotive: Big Boy No. 4014.

After the 2013 season, the locomotive was taken out of service for boiler work required by a change in the water treatment. It spent 2014 in Cheyenne, then received an early 15-year inspection the following year.

On June 16 and 17, 2016, the 844 was test-fired. On July 12, 2016, the Union Pacific Steam Team took the locomotive on a "break-in run" as a sort of all-systems check and dress rehearsal for its return to service. The run was described as a complete success. On July 23, 2016, it pulled the annual Cheyenne Frontiers Day excursion.

On October 13, 2016, the Union Pacific Steam Team started its 18-day "Trek To Tennessee" journey: the restored 844's first major trip.

In April 2017, No. 844 made its first run on the Oregon Short Line Railroad to celebrate the 92nd anniversary of the Boise Union Pacific Depot. Because of heavy snows and a wet spring, the trip was cut short and the engine had to run light across the Malad River because of a washed-out bridge.

In December 2018, Union Pacific requested Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) waivers to exempt UP Nos. 844, 3985 and 4014 from federal Positive Train Control (PTC) requirements in February 2019, the FRA officials responded that such waivers were not needed.

On May 4, 2019, No. 844 participated in the inaugural run of the newly-restored Big Boy No. 4014. The train departed the historic Cheyenne Depot following a christening ceremony for No. 4014. The two locomotives arrived at the Ogden Union Station on May 9 for the city's Heritage Festival. The two locomotives were on display at the station until May 12, when the return trip to Cheyenne began. They arrived at Cheyenne on May 19, concluding the first run of No. 4014 in excursion service.

As of January 2020, Nos. 844 and 4014 are the only two operational UP steam locomotives left on the active roster, following the retirement of No. 3985 from excursion service due to its poor mechanical condition. No. 3985 was eventually donated to the Railroading Heritage of Midwest America on April 28, 2022. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, UP cancelled all of its 2020 steam excursions and stated that Nos. 844 and 4014 would not operate for the 2020 operating season. UP eventually resumed excursion operations with No. 4014 in August and September 2021. No future excursions have thus far been scheduled for No. 844.

From 1962 to 1989, the locomotive was numbered UP 8444 because the railroad had given the number 844 to an EMD GP30 locomotive. After the GP30 was retired from active service in June 1989, No. 8444 was renumbered back to 844. That GP30 is now owned by Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City, Nevada, and operates periodically at the Nevada Southern Railroad Museum on excursion runs. There is now an EMD SD70ACe on the UP roster numbered 8444.

On July 21, 2018, while pulling the Cheyenne Frontier Days Special to Denver, Colorado, No. 844 struck and killed a pedestrian in Henderson, Colorado. It was reported that the pedestrian was trying to take photos of the train while standing too close to the tracks before she was hit. The train was stopped immediately following the accident.

UP 844 was documented in the 1981 film "Eighty Four Forty Four" by the Union Pacific Railroad. Some of those clips would be later used for the opening and closing credits of the PBS show Shining Time Station, which ran from 1989 until 1995 (including the four hour-long Family Specials).

UP 844 also appears in Extreme Trains in the episode "Steam Train", in which it pulled the Frontier Days special from Denver to Cheyenne.

UP 844 also makes an appearance in the 2nd Episode of the 3rd Season on the TLC TV series, Mostly True Stories?: Urban Legends Revealed.

In the 1990 PBS special Ghost Trains of the Old West, UP 8444, as it was numbered at the time of filming, is seen pulling a Union Pacific diesel locomotive and passenger train through Wyoming.

UP 844 (and several other restored steam locomotives) appear in the music video with the Pat Metheny Group's "Last Train Home".

The 2014 short film "Locomotive Song" features UP 844—particularly its running gear—accompanied by the song of the same name by boogie-woogie pianist Honey Piazza.

models and route by: Trainz-Forge, Auran, and Download Station

[dreambubblez]

honorary peixes

[lululeighsworld]

I BOUGHT YOU FLOWERS TOO!!

happy anniversary my love 🥺💖 i reached s-support with gunter eight years ago today!!

[nebou]

Zero's a menace and we love him for it

[perhaps-only-a-mirage]

decided to make a sprite for nepeta's pir8 design! it's a shame that she & fef never got official regular sprite-mode for these designs

[cxttlefishcxller]

For the OC Ask game:

☄️ Comet - Who is your most self destructive character? Why are they like that?

🌙 Crescent moon - Do any of your characters have to hide a part of themselves? Why?

🛰 Satellite - Do you have a character who is very dependent on another character? Is it healthy or unhealthy?

☄️ Comet - Who is your most self destructive character? Why are they like that?

Ohhh that'd definitely be Mia. Especially in her latest FC5 iteration, she's always put doing the "right" thing over her own safety, but it's a double-edged sword -- she's the type to throw herself headfirst into danger to save lives, but always with that little quiet hope that she won't make it out the other side. It's all tied to her self-worth: she thinks that every shortcoming that's led her this far will be wiped clean if she manages to do One Big Thing that will clear her name and turn her into someone worth being remembered. She'd 10000% rather be a martyr than a living failure.

🌙 Crescent moon - Do any of your characters have to hide a part of themselves? Why?

I think all of them do for various reasons, but Piper (my beloved) gets the spotlight this time around. XD After Tripps, she's starting to realize that there's something More to her, between prophetic dreams and small (and not so small!) supernatural happenings that tend to happen around her whenever she's distressed. At first she hides it because she's in denial that she's the one responsible at all, but when she gets to Vegas and discovers just why she's that way, she feels she has to keep it from the Boulder crew just so that they don't associate her with the magic that destroyed the world in the first place. She's terrified that she's going to be seen as someone that's Just As Bad as Flagg in the end.

🛰 Satellite - Do you have a character who is very dependent on another character? Is it healthy or unhealthy?

It's so hard not to put TedPipes here but I'll restrain myself jfkld;safd I actually really love writing codependent relationships in varying stages of healthiness because it's incredibly fun fjdlk;safd but cycling over to DBH, it'd have to be Sawyer on this one. They're most definitely a victim of circumstance, but they tend to attach themselves to whoever they deem is "safe", whether that happens to be true or not, especially when they're in distress and believe that they can't get out of a situation on their own. Their dependence on Markus is definitely not the healthiest at first. He's their bodyguard, their only consistent companion, and while they're trapped in their house, he's their only link to the world. (Plus he's the only one that 100% is NOT the one secretly terrorizing them into staying home in the first place fjdkls;) But even with the rocky start, it definitely builds into something much healthier and mutually beneficial as both they and Markus realize where their strength really lies.

[charliesinfern0]

absolutely love taking characters that have so much potential to be dynamic characters and… give them character

[rrtfs-official-blog]

God I really need to work on the short that’s in progress, funnily enough I have two. One from last year I never finished. It was for the holiday season, called ‘The Christmas Cannonball’ and I just didn’t finish it in time so I’ve held onto what I have for this year. Problem is I still haven’t finished it. And every time I go to work on it I lose motivation since I’ve got ‘nothing but time’. Which kinda sucks but hey what can I do? Just hope I get it done in time.

This other one ‘Hey Porter! Hey Porter!’ Is going slowly. Mainly on account of my co-writer (no hate to him! He just keeps forgetting to do his parts). I already have the promo image done for it, and I have for a while now despite it being probably the most complex of the ones I’ve done so far. Actually hands down it’s d the most complicated one, but I’m very proud of it since reference for the engines/rail vehicles I had to draw didn’t have the most specific reference for both their size and the pictures I could find weren’t the best but I made due and I’m quite pleased with it! So in the meantime I’ve considered started a third one to chip away at while the other two slowly get worked on. Problem is, I’ve got multiple shorts I wanna do apart from ‘Hey Porter! Hey Porter!‘ so that doesn’t help. Do I do something with the Southern Pacific and their Daylight engines? Do I do the New York Central and their Mohawk mafia? Or do I do Union Pacific’s living legend Colt and his hate for the UP’s theme song? I don’t know, and I’m very open to suggestions, especially for new storylines! I always love hearing other peoples ideas and at least considering them!

[hamsterdancen]

fef

also i'm opening commissions again! and not only digital - but a traditional pencil one too, dm me if you're interested :3

[daily-jadeharl3y]

THE FEFERI IN YOUR LAST ONE IS SO CUTE FFGHCDETHHVG I humbly request Jade and Fef having fun at a pool :3

[onlysushicat]

Can you draw catfish ? :3

thatss fefnep, right? the Nepeta in the right is because I had another idea on mind but Fef's horns were in the way lmao

[collinthenychudson]

Working with a trio of Amtrak E8s, Union Pacific 8444 (844) steams along with the Eastbound San Francisco Zephyr. While several people know about the 1977 Amtrak Transcontinental Steam Excursion headed by Southern Pacific 4449, the 8444 also got the chance to help out Amtrak by pulling the San Francisco Zephyr between Denver, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming as shown with this image: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5391560

Models and Route by: Trainz-Forge, The Terminal Trainz, Jointed Rail, TrainzProRoutes, Auran, and Download Station

#up #unionpacific #unionpacificrailroad #up8444 #unionpacific8444 #amtrak #sanfranciscozephyr #amtrake8 #e8 #emde8 #fef #fef3 #upfef3 #unionpacificfef3 #steamlocomotive #dieselocomotive #trains #trainzsimulator

[dreambubblez]

first post yay!! beta troll lineup 38)

[lululeighsworld]

you must remember who it is all for

sharing my fic for @InvincibleZine's 'In the Footsteps of Fate', a Fire Emblem Lords Zine! my piece explores non-binary Corrin requesting some sage advice from their oldest ally, who's had his fair share of experiences with the cruel hands of fate.

read on AO3

and check out the full project, available for free, to see all the contributors' lovely artworks and fanfics!

[zenosanalytic]

I've been thinking about how to articulate a thought I had about a possible Doylist/non-diegetic reading(EDIT: I originally wrote "Watsonian" here, which is the opposite of what I meant X| X| Brain, you Tricksome Jester *shakes entirely metaphorical fist*) of Eridan's Trollian handle, caligulasAquarium, in response to a post of @mmmmalo's, and I think I've got it.

Ok So: the popular perception of Caligula is as a "Mad Emperor". One of the points used in this depiction is his "War on the Sea", which is taken as obvsl absurd and empty and irrational(and possibly hubristic). Eridan chooses to call himself "caligulasAquarium" and he lives in a wrecked ship(a feature commonly put in aquariums)... on the surface.

So like: maybe the title is meant to be taken by the audience as ironic. Eridan's claim to an "Aquarium" is as absurd and empty and irrational as Caligula's claim to have warred upon the sea(in the common understanding of those events; as a matter of history this seems to be a Telephone distortion, from the sources I can find).

A few more points that have occurred to me since I started writing this:

Caligula "Made War on the Sea"; Eridan wants to "Make War on the Surface" by Killing All Landwellers, carrying forward the themes of inversion btwn Alternia and Earth.

Also: "Kill All Landwellers", "Kill All Humans": he's lampshading common evil-alien-overlord tropes

...Which in itself is sort of dunking on HIM, since Eridan is nobody's overlord he's just some GUY. Like: Yes, he's "Nobility" due to blood-caste, but he has no influence, no power, no RESPECT from anyone we meet, no friendships let alone alliances with other socially powerful individuals(other than Feferi, who seems to have foresworn all that to monastically care for G'lybgolyb) that he could USE to have influence; he's just a loner with his grand-dad's gun and allot of pretension.

...which you could argue furthers his parody of USian internet white-supremacists? Like: He is THEM: a gun-humping loner who only feels comfortable talking to the people he claims to hate, with no idea how unpleasant he makes himself to interact with, and even less interest in introspection or self-awareness, fetishizing past genocides as a way to claim for himself a "Glorious Past" he had nothing to do with.

As Feferi(and possibly other characters I'm forgetting) point out, Eridan's ambition to Kill All Landwellers is more than a little absurd. He's never really DONE anything to plan or prepare for it, and aside from Fef he exclusively hangs out with and befriends Landwellers, as well as LIVING ON LAND(well: a sandbar or reef). This could be taken as furthering the Caligula "War on the Sea" parallel.

Expanding on the last: Caligula, THE EMPEROR OF ROME and Grandest of Nepo-babies, was rather notably disdainful of and hostile towards the Roman nobility and inherited wealth/rank. This connects to Eridan in two ways I can think of: 1) his avoidance of other seadwellers, and 2) his philosophical hostility to landdwellers while Being, in practice, A Landweller. Basically: both Hate things about themselves shared by others.

Reinforcing #3: the choice of Caligula, a Troll-Emperor. Again: Eridan is Just Some Guy; he does not command armies, he does not command society, he can't even command Equius, who GETS OFF ON being ordered around. This is Pretension.

...which, I guess, you could connect AGAIN back to Caligula via the popular memory of him wanting to be treated "As A God", but it should be noted that 1)everyone who wrote anything about him hated the guy and was explicitly dunking on him, so we don't know how accurate these charges are, and 2)in the Roman context, while legal apotheosis was reserved for after death, imperial Divinity was already de facto given that sacrifices and prayers to the Emperor's health and success were legally mandated civic religious duties, AND 3)that classical Greeks and Romans, contra the Abrahimic societies which would later create this popular memory, considered apotheosis a real possibility for notable individuals.

[sisyphusshrugged]

Fef got a cancer diagnosis a couple months back. had his first dose of chemo yesterday. he seems to be doing well so far. we got an appetite stimulant which is working too. so hopefully can keep his weight and strength up. i was waiting to say anything about it here, felt like there were people i should let know one-on-one first. but there was really only 2-3 of them it would matter to so. keep my man in your thoughts/prayers if you can.