Rail roads and their tracks.

[ArlyA]

Here is a link to the UP Steam page. It tells about Big Boy 4014 and "Living Legend" (actually a Northern) 844. It has a link to join the Steam Club, which will give you email updates, live tracking, etc. There are also some Facebook pages. 4014 was delivered as a coal fired unit and was converted to number 5 oil during the restoration. There is a fuel tanker truck dedicated to 4014 that travels with the locomotive. It has 4014 on the hood. 844 was the last steam engine delivered to the UP and has never been retired. Challenger 3985 is now retired.
UP: UP Steam

In one of the videos I caught on YouTube they showed the oil tanker refueling the Big boy and mentions its conversion to oil. What a marketing gold mine for the UP and railroads in general. In light of this virus thing, I'd predict the BB will stay home this summer.

 

[Hay Dude]

My grandfather worked at Baldwin Locomotive in Eddystone, PA and then started an oil delivery business where he delivered oil to them. He told me some of the most amazing stories. As a youngster I wish I listened to more of them. One I remember fondly was how they would heat up a new engine and send it out for its farewell to a customer.
Things have changed so much

 

[MossRoad]

I am a land surveyor and through my work I have learned about them. One good thing from my point of view is the tracks are usually the center of the ROW and the location of the rails is pretty stable over the years.

Some of the ROW documents often don稚 say more than starting in KC and running to Chicago and the ROW is 100 feet wide, where some pin it down better.

So my abandoned RR story is the MLI, which is the Macomb, Littleton, Industry rail road. It was a small rail line in western Illinois. It has been abandoned for about 90 years and I have done a couple of surveys along it. In one case buildings were built on the ROW and another case the railroad was excluded fron a persons deed. In the one case the deed痴 actually tied the ROW. In an exact manner and it matched the vague remains of it.

It is my understanding the it takes an act of the federal government to abandon a railroad ROW and this MLI railroad still exists on paper but it has been gone for so long it would be tough to use it again without starting over.

We have an old RR grade through our property. I was hoping they'd convert it to rails-to-trails, however, about 10 years after we bought the property, the railroad officially abandoned it. Ownership reverted back to us.

 

[Hay Dude]

Rails to trails is a big hot button issue in my community. There’s one in particular where we fought against it. We did not feel comfortable with strangers riding bikes and making noise behind our homes. Train noise is one thing.
I think it’s a sound concept in open space where there’s no homes nearby, but could have a big impact on home value in residential areas.

 

[ArlyA]

Rails to trails is a big hot button issue in my community. There’s one in particular where we fought against it. We did not feel comfortable with strangers riding bikes and making noise behind our homes. Train noise is one thing. I think it’s a sound concept in open space where there’s no homes nearby, but could have a big impact on home value in residential areas.

Walkers and cyclist making to much noise? Its a long established fact that RR grades converted to trails brings the value of homes along it up.

 

[Hay Dude]

Walkers and cyclist making to much noise? Its a long established fact that RR grades converted to trails brings the value of homes along it up.

I’m not saying I agree with that line of thinking. Residents brought up some valid points, though. It’s not the volume of the noise, it’s the cursing, kids making out, drug use, litter/trash, public urination, etc they were concerned about. Diesel locomotives don’t make that kind of noise.

 

[MossRoad]

Rails to trails is a big hot button issue in my community. There痴 one in particular where we fought against it. We did not feel comfortable with strangers riding bikes and making noise behind our homes. Train noise is one thing.
I think it痴 a sound concept in open space where there痴 no homes nearby, but could have a big impact on home value in residential areas.

There have been several rails-to-trails conversions in this area. No problems have come from them. In fact, property values have gone up, the trails are much better maintained than the railroad right of ways were, there is little to no bulk dumping of trash, appliances, furniture, etc...

That's because the trails are in the open, there are few places for people to hide out in the shadows. Abandoned rail lines attract trash dumping, homeless people, overgrowth soon after the train traffic stops.

 

[ArlyA]

in this video the chief engineer speaks as to why they converted it to oil.

 

[Hay Dude]

There have been several rails-to-trails conversions in this area. No problems have come from them. In fact, property values have gone up, the trails are much better maintained than the railroad right of ways were, there is little to no bulk dumping of trash, appliances, furniture, etc...

That's because the trails are in the open, there are few places for people to hide out in the shadows. Abandoned rail lines attract trash dumping, homeless people, overgrowth soon after the train traffic stops.

I don’t really have strong feelings about rails to trails except I’d rather them just be active railroads again, shipping bulk materials or passengers. Abandoned rails are sad places to me. Let’s give incentives to reviving them and take some heavy trucks off the road to save our highways.

 

[ArlyA]

Big boy spec's as found here I just love these big machines and part of my interest of industrial history.
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Big Boy No. 4014

Twenty-five Big Boys were built exclusively for Union Pacific Railroad, the first of which was delivered in 1941. The locomotives were 132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds. Because of their great length, the frames of the Big Boys were "hinged," or articulated, to allow them to negotiate curves. They had a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, which meant they had four wheels on the leading set of "pilot" wheels which guided the engine, eight drivers, another set of eight drivers, and four wheels following which supported the rear of the locomotive. The massive engines normally operated between Ogden, Utah, and Cheyenne, Wyo.

There are seven Big Boys on public display in various cities around the country. They can be found in St. Louis, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Big Boy No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941. The locomotive was retired in December 1961, having traveled 1,031,205 miles in its 20 years in service. Union Pacific reacquired No. 4014 from the RailGiants Museum in Pomona, California, in 2013, and relocated it back to Cheyenne to begin a multi-year restoration process. It returned to service in May 2019 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad's Completion.