# How about 1:1 scale. 4014



## Fabforrest

Have you seen this?


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## gunrunnerjohn

Yep, it's a locomotive again!


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## Dennis461

Directional lighting


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## jimben

If posting a picture, nothing showed up


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## Lee Willis

Now that is impressive!


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## Fabforrest

jimben said:


> If posting a picture, nothing showed up


YouTube video. Others see.


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## MartyE

Deleted


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## Spence

That's a lot of smoke.  I wonder what kind of smoke fluid they use!


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## seayakbill

Have to give the UP credit for restoring these great steamers. I wonder what the expense is to fund their restoration division.

Bill


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## mikew

Wonderful!!


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## superwarp1

There's going to be Youtube videos galore over the next few months. exciting times for Steam lovers.


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## gunrunnerjohn

Here's my contribution to the 4014 video collection, I'd sure love to be closer so I could see this beast in person! 

I'll bet that's as clean as that locomotive has been in a very long time!


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## Guest

Wonderful to see this beauty running under it's own power.


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## highvoltage

Interesting that it has a helper diesel at the rear. I guess they don't want to stress it until it's broken in.


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## Dennis461

drone following outside the yard.
Near the end it looks like trouble, was there too much steam leaking from front engine?
No steam at the rear engine?


I suspect the diesel is not providing traction power, it may be a company policy to allow the train to continue on schedule if the steamer needs to be shutdown.


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## gunrunnerjohn

Looks like something went wrong, too many people milling around for it to be nothing.


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## towdog

My jaw was on the ground when I walked around the static display of the one in Omaha. To see one running would be something else entirely. 

A video of this going full throttle while shot from a car on the road next to it would be a site to behold.


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## Maxum

Where I was last night, 



















The pictures don't do it justice.


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## Maxum

highvoltage said:


> Interesting that it has a helper diesel at the rear. I guess they don't want to stress it until it's broken in.


Actually they use the dynamic brakes on the diesel to put a load on 4014 during the test run. UP has done that in the past after they've rebuilt their steamers.

While the diesel did tow the consist back to Cheyenne last night, 4014 was running at part throttle. I got that information from radio traffic between Ed Dickens in 4014 and the engineer in the diesel.


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## Fabforrest

talk about timing...tuned into the live feed from Laramie just in time to catch the arrival.

seems clear from the video i have seen today that 4014 is not working very hard. 844 and the diesel seem to be doing all the work.


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## gunrunnerjohn

Given the length of the train, not that much work to be done. I think three locomotives are up to the task! 

OTOH, it's good that they're taking it easy until they develop some confidence in the locomotive.


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## superwarp1

After the hooplas of next week are over and 4014 is fully broken in. I hope to see 4014 pulling some freights unassisted some time this summer


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## Fabforrest

That would be cool. 

There is precedent with 3985


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## empire builder

for all the hype of Big Boy so sad it was all show. maybe later once broken in we will see a real Big Boy actually running under its own power.


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## Maxum

Fabforrest said:


> talk about timing...tuned into the live feed from Laramie just in time to catch the arrival.
> 
> seems clear from the video i have seen today that 4014 is not working very hard. 844 and the diesel seem to be doing all the work.


I don't think that's the case. I was at Harriman and both 844 and 4014 slipped their drivers taking off. If you listen at the beginning of my video you'll hear 844's drivers slip and then 4014's front engine slips.


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## Fabforrest

point taken. nice catch.

how impressive in person??

:thumbsup:


doncha love people who walk in front of you while you are recording?


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## Dennis461

empire builder said:


> for all the hype of Big Boy so sad it was all show. maybe later once broken in we will see a real Big Boy actually running under its own power.


I also disagree. During the test run, diesel was used in dynamic braking mode to simulate load.

I think the diesel stay in the consist to allow speedy recovery of the train should something go wrong.
Today's train looks like 9 cars, possibly 700 tons out of possible 3600 tons 'rated' for the Bog Boy.

So, it's not surprising that there is not a lot of billowing smoke from the steamers.

Anyone know a good web site where we can fins real info? _Trains _magazine seem to be a day behind with their stories


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## Maxum

Fabforrest said:


> point taken. nice catch.
> 
> how impressive in person??
> 
> :thumbsup:
> 
> 
> doncha love people who walk in front of you while you are recording?


It was a dream come true to be standing next to an operating Big Boy. I saw 4014 in Pomona back in the early 1970's in the museum. Never thought in a million years I'd see it running. I'm very lucky to live not far from Cheyenne nowadays. To be fair about the people in the video, there were 1000+ people where we were at. My wife did the video while I shot stills. She walked up after the people in front of her were already there. A bunch of us did set up an impromptu photo line where I was. When someone walked in front of us, a railfan from Germany spoke up and asked the guy to move and invited him to join our photo line, which he did.


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## highvoltage

Maxum said:


> Actually they use the dynamic brakes on the diesel to put a load on 4014 during the test run. UP has done that in the past after they've rebuilt their steamers.
> 
> While the diesel did tow the consist back to Cheyenne last night, 4014 was running at part throttle. I got that information from radio traffic between Ed Dickens in 4014 and the engineer in the diesel.


Excellent, thank you very much.


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## Fabforrest

“It was a dream come true to be standing next to an operating Big Boy.”

Awesome.


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## gunrunnerjohn

I'm sure they're not pushing the BB to the max yet, but it does certainly seem like it's capable of moving on it's own.

I like the theater car on the rear of the train, first time I've seen that one in 1:1 scale.


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## Fabforrest

Maxum, will we see more from you?


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## Maxum

Fabforrest said:


> Maxum, will we see more from you?


When I get time to go through my pictures from yesterday, I'll post some more. I'm planning on catching 4014 on it's return to Cheyenne on May 19th. If you guys want, I can post some more pictures then.


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## Fabforrest

Works for me.


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## Norton

Maxum, google earth shows a water tower near Harriman. Do you know where the tower was with respect to the train when it was stopped? 
Also does that section of track have a particular name like xxxx branch? We rode US30 from near Utah to Omaha a few years where it parallels the mainline almost all the way. Seems like it was never more than ten minutes that a train wasn't going by.









Pete


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## Maxum

Norton said:


> Maxum, google earth shows a water tower near Harriman. Do you know where the tower was with respect to the train when it was stopped?
> Also does that section of track have a particular name like xxxx branch? We rode US30 from near Utah to Omaha a few years where it parallels the mainline almost all the way. Seems like it was never more than ten minutes that a train wasn't going by.
> 
> View attachment 494676
> 
> 
> Pete


4014 stopped just slightly west of the water tank. That's line is an alternate route for west bound trains. I believe it's UP's track #3. It hooks back into the other part of the mainline in Laramie. The picture in your post is looking to the west. Yes, it is a busy line.


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## superwarp1

How about three big boys pulling 114 cars?


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## seayakbill

Gary, very impressive video of the outdoor layout and BB lash-up. I am always amazed how those type of layouts survive the weather.

Bill


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## ripsau1

i was right there in harriman, straight across from you on the hill


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## HarborBelt1970

I thought I’d add this short video to the mix because of a couple of unique perspectives it gives. 

The first is that it starts with a Chinese man and his son who have travelled 10,000 miles to see the Big Boy: The man does not speak English; his son translates in a heavy mainland Chinese accent. I couldn’t help wondering whether they are in the model train factory business!

The second is that there is a lot of footage of Ed Dickens, UP’s head of their historic steam program, and of course engineer at the throttle of #4014 over these days since she was first fired up. He gives an account of how his first encounter with a steam engine was actually holding a Lionel model of one when he was 10 months old.

Dickens has come in for so much flak (and even from Mr Rich Melvin no less) on the other forum over his handling of the UP steam program that I was really interested to hear him talking about the effort he has lead.


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## bigdodgetrain

Ed told me today 5-10-19 that he feels the nay-sayers are jealous that they are not involved in making the big boy come back to life.
Very nice man and he holds no grudges.


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## tjcruiser

For the techie real train guys, I have a (simple minded) question about the 4014 Big Boy:

In watching the videos of her running, there are times where the two sets of drive rods / gear seem to be operating in tandem / cadence together. But then, there are times when they appear to be our of phase.

Is the operation / push of each of the two sets (each of the 8's in the 4-8-8-4) completely independent from each other, or is there some imposed timing that when one in on the full-push of its trust cycle, the other is away from that.

Sorry for my layman's terminology. Just curious, though ...

Thanks!

TJ


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## Fabforrest

They are independent. In fact, in one startup video you can see one set slip. I believe that there is one throttle for the two engines.


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## Dennis461

Fabforrest said:


> They are independent. In fact, in one startup video you can see one set slip. I believe that there is one throttle for the two engines.


Somewhat independent, front engine to rear engine. (An engine is a set of drivers, connecting rods, pistons cylinders.)

No direct mechanical connection, however, 1)there is some interacting from the steam supply meaning as one engine slips, steam flow is momentarily increased for that set, diminished for the non-slipping 2) another interaction is weight transfer during slipping, may not be visible, but the wheels can jump up and down slightly on the slipping set, transferring weight to/from other set of drivers.

I'll bet the guy with his hand on the throttle and Johnson bar was cursing himself for scratching uo those brand new tires!


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## gunrunnerjohn

He had to re-learn to drive the big iron, he'll get the hang of it.


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## tjcruiser

Dennis461 said:


> Somewhat independent, front engine to rear engine. (An engine is a set of drivers, connecting rods, pistons cylinders.)
> 
> No direct mechanical connection, however, 1)there is some interacting from the steam supply meaning as one engine slips, steam flow is momentarily increased for that set, diminished for the non-slipping 2) another interaction is weight transfer during slipping, may not be visible, but the wheels can jump up and down slightly on the slipping set, transferring weight to/from other set of drivers.
> 
> I'll bet the guy with his hand on the throttle and Johnson bar was cursing himself for scratching uo those brand new tires!



Fab, Dennis --

Many thanks for the info / lesson. Much appreciated.

Fun stuff, for sure ... especially to see it all in action, once again!

TJ


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## Maxum

Fabforrest said:


> Maxum, will we see more from you?



Your wish is my command!

Cheyenne this morning,


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## Fabforrest

Thanks. 😁


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## highvoltage

That is impressive, thank you Maxum.


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## Maxum

highvoltage said:


> That is impressive, thank you Maxum.


Thanks. One last picture from Sunday I just got done editing.


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## Fabforrest

Super!


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