May: Union Pacific 844 (Living Legend) at Union Station
The Last of the Steam Locomotives
Steam Locomotive No. 844 is the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific Railroad. It was delivered in 1944. A high-speed passenger engine, it pulled such widely known trains as the Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, Portland Rose and Challenger.
Many people know the engine as the No. 8444, since an extra '4' was added to its number in 1962 to distinguish it from a diesel numbered in the 800 series. The steam engine regained its rightful number in June 1989, after the diesel was retired.
When diesels took over all of the passenger train duties, No. 844 was placed in freight service in Nebraska between 1957 and 1959. It was saved from being scrapped in 1960 and held for special service.
The engine has run hundreds of thousands of miles as Union Pacific's ambassador of goodwill. It has made appearances at Expo '74 in Spokane, the 1981 opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans and the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Los Angeles Union Station in 1989.
Hailed as Union Pacific's "Living Legend," the engine is widely known among railroad enthusiasts for its excursion runs, especially over Union Pacific's fabled crossing of Sherman Hill between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming.
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Union Pacific Steam Locomotive 844 undergoes repairs to fix a bearing. The repair took all day.
Union Pacific Steam Locomotive 844 undergoes repairs to fix a bearing. The repair took all day.
Union Pacific Steam Locomotive 844 undergoes repairs to fix a bearing. The repair took all day.
UP 844 Drive Wheel Detail at Night
Union Pacific Steam Locomotive 844 bearing repairs complete.
From the UP Facebook page posted on August 14, 2012. They used this photo to go along with the description. Photo must have been lifted from my Smugmug site. The red light in question a lot; On UP #844 was used on high-speed passenger engines and were for use while standing in stations so oncoming passenger trains would not enter the particular track they were occupying. The lights were designed by the Mars Headlight Company and were basically designed for flagging both in station tracks, as mentioned above, and on the mainline. If a train went into emergency the red light, which was a working wigwag by the way, would automatically trip and start working without the engineer having to manually turn it on. Some have never seen the "mars" light on the 844 on...so here. The mars light can be taken as a "final stop NOW"..or maybe the track it's on doesn't have a working signal or it's on an older track (since we do excursions on older lines and routes sometimes)...but most importantly, don't forget. The engine is from the early 1940's..therefore technology was different and so were rules. We simply are keeping the original engine and making sure the public see's what it was like.
