Brett-
I was also introduced to big steam by the film "Last of the Giants", being just a few years too young to have seen steam in its final pre-tourism days. I have been haunted since.
I have followed through this forum and others the dissension about the UP steam program and have no wish to further stir that pot. Anyone willing to spend treasure and time restoring and running steam has my vote and whatever limited support I can muster (and I follow modern railroading too, as possible).
I was able to tour the UP steam shop and roundhouse in Cheyenne in early March of 2017 in a memorable unexpected trip cross country which also included stops at Promontory (Summit), the CRRM, Como, Cimarron and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the 765 at the Fort Wayne Historical Society, and other interesting places. I had not been active in the railfan community for many prior years for a variety of reasons.
The UP tour was a benefit for the Museum in the Cheyenne depot and had long been sold out (I only discovered the tours were on in transit). But the friendly people at the depot suggested that I show up before a tour and see if anyone had a ticket they couldn't use to sell. And so just a few minutes before the tour bus loaded, for $20 (including a free Museum entrance), I was in. And allowed to ask questions and photograph freely.
The roundhouse tour was conducted by a member of the old guard whose name I did not catch, but we swapped stories and I saw close up the 3985, the 5511, the 838, the E-9's, the Centennial and a variety of other treasures. While the tour guide referred to the 3985 as the "current world's largest operational steam locomotive", he was not optimistic about seeing it back on the line any time soon.
The shop tour was conducted by Ed Dickens himself. The 844 was undergoing cylinder work as we toured, the 4014 of course torn down. Also in the shop among other things were the rotary 900082 and the recently assigned diesel switcher 1472 (number no accident). From my notes;
- The UP was committing major resources to the heritage program's future, including among other things the planned installation of a large capacity overhead crane (since installed I understand). Apparently in selling the modern UP, the management saw value in using the heritage program.
- Regardless of operational issues, the UP prefers to have a diesel with the steam to show the public the contrast between modern and historic power. This is not trivial; the UP earns its money with its modern power, and the heritage program is to help sell the modern, not the other way round.
- Ideas for other projects beyond the 844 and 4014 were under consideration, not excluding heritage diesels.
- Most memorable was Ed at the end of the tour, after we reloaded, bringing out to the quieter tour bus each of the young men working in the program, naming them, and stating and praising their part in the program. The novelty of people in their 20's making a living training and working rebuilding steam technology of the previous century which only their grandparents and great-grandparents knew live did not escape me, but even more UP seeing a significance to spotlighting them.
I have thought about this often since. I am in my 60's and I have experienced steam only as a past reality recreated. Those who knew it as a live and not historic reality are years older and passing away, and even I who have known it second hand so to speak will not be around so many years longer. Whatever survives of it beyond us will have to make sense and fit in to the railroads and the world of the younger folks whose connection will be much more distant. And we older folks and our perception and desires for what it should be will necessarily pass from view. The importance of completely recreating a world we remember or nearly knew will fade with us and our memories
I believe the UP and its heritage program has taken that reality to heart and is making its own accommodations. Whether it will ultimately survive can of course change at any point. But if it is to survive beyond us old folks, that calculation will have to be made, and I myself am encouraged to see UP's attempt. Given that the young folk's connection will be either to ghost memories of generations distant, or to something in their own world which makes sense in it, I'll bet on the latter as the best hope for steam survival.
Timothy S.