On the mainlines, locomotives were inspected completely after every single run. In the roundhouse everything was checked. You have seen pictures of guys walking around with torches checking for air leaks. Depending on how many miles a particular locomotive ran, that was what usually decided what was to be done after I think maybe a year. By the way, I am using UP's Cheyenne shop force and thinking on terms of 4000's and 38 and 3900's...800's, 9000's. Since my dad is such a UP nut, I have been hearing things like this for years.
Cheyenne did the bulk of the work during the steam days. Sometimes the shop in Cheyenne was over-crowded and they had to transfer power to be worked on in North Platte or I think Laramie did some work and so did Green River. Maybe even Omaha (which is where I live). I think Laramie could do tubes if they had to and other small things. But Cheyenne was what did the heavy lifting.
They would usually divide the shop forces up at the beginning of the day. Of course there were shifts too. I think in Cheyenne there were two or three. There was always someone there working. Depending on how many people they had on one locomotive, they could completely overhaul even a 4000 in less than a month. They had to get it done in that or faster, because there was always something else behind it. At a given time you could have one or two people from each department working on one locomotive. Say the 9045, 3-cylinder 4-12-2 the "Union Pacific Type", is in need of tubes and flues, tires, a front tube sheet, new sand pipes, the whistle leaks, the stoker needs work, and the throttle needs to be checked and lapped because it leaks too. So right there you have about 15 people or more that need to get to work on 9045. The tender goes to one part of the shop, or maybe they don't have room in the shop so they just work on it outside on a side track. Then once the stoker is ripped out, cleaned, and the problem if any, is fixed, then it would probably go to paint/stripping shop to be stripped with real nasty chemicals, then painted and lettered. While that is going on the locomotive is first being inspected. Then let's say they suddenly see that the main rod for the third cylinder needs work. So they decide to rush the job on the boiler and get that all done, with the tubes and maybe the super heater needs some work. They lap the throttle valve, take the whistle off and some grunt runs that over to the pipe fitter, probably.
Then after most of the stuff on the boiler is done, they probably would have lifted the boiler completely off of the chassis. They could have gotten away without doing that, but actually the work would be easier because the third cylinder components would be easier to get to that way...thus, the work is faster. Most of this could probably be done in just two or three shifts alone.
When you think of it this way, you come to realize the magnitude of work that had to be done on a daily basis to maintain steam locomotives and keep them moving. But, the shop people got the job done. Also when you think about the stuff that was melted down and reused or sold for scrap, or thrown away. Unbelievable. Think of the guys that had to throw the asbestos away. Shoveling that stuff for an afternoon.
Cheyenne even had their own little narrow gauge railway that went out and got parts on the east end of the whole complex. I don't know what gauge. It's probably documented somewhere. Can't be too big. It didn't have far to go.
Kevin Bush
