Outlaw's HideOut: What Me Retire?

The Union Pacific Railroad in March 2011 conducted a contest for an Union Pacific Great Excursion Adventure. The contest was conducted via Facebook for individuals to vote on four different excursion routes: Tuscola Turn, Baton Rouge Rambler and Boise Express, and The Little Rock Express. The Little Rock Express route won with 76,217 votes vs. Tuscola Turn (73,175), Baton Rouge Rambler (18,0870) and Boise Express (11,213).

The Little Rock Express began May 29 with the arrival of Union Pacific's steam locomotive No. 844 in Kansas City, Mo., and concluded June 9 in Little Rock, Ark. UP 844 departed Cheyenne, WY, its home base, May 2 and arrived back in Cheyenne in late June.
The route from Little Rock back to Cheyenne was delayed and changed due to flooding from the Missouri River in Kansas. The display time in Little Rock was cut short so the excursion could get back to Cheyenne near it's planned return date.

Excursion Route.

The UP 844 is part of Union Pacific Railroad’s unique and historic Steam Locomotive fleet which consist of UP 844 and UP 3895. UP 844 significance is that it is the only steam locomotive that has never retired from active service. It was saved from being scrapped in 1960. It was chosen for restoration and is now used on company and public excursion trains. Most of them were equipped with distinctive smoke deflectors, sometimes called "elephant ears," on the front of the boiler. These were designed to help lift the smoke above the engine so the engine crew's visibility wasn't impaired when the train was drifting at light throttle.

The UP 844 is a Northern class steam locomotives, with a wheel arrangement of 4-8-4, and were used by most large U.S. railroads in dual passenger and freight service.

The other Union Pacific steam locomotive is UP 3895 Challenger. (See my blog titled" Largest Operating Steam Locomotive in the World - Union Pacific 3985 Challenger") It is unique in that it is the largest and most powerful steam locomotive in the world that is still in operation.

Union Pacific at one time owned 105 Challenger locomotives. Built between 1936 and 1943, the Challengers were nearly 122 feet long and weighed more than one million pounds. Articulated like their big brother, the Big Boy, the Challengers had a 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement. It could run at top speeds of 120 MPH.

I took a lot of photos of the UP 844 during it's stop in St. Louis for the Little Rock Express Excursion on June 2, 2011. I was in Little Rock on June 3-6 but the UP 844 was still on it's route from St. Louis to Little Rock.

There was a large crowd of rail fans out to see and photograph the big locomotive.

Here is a good photo from the front. Notice the "elephant ears".

While stopped for display in St. Louis it was also serviced. Here water is being loaded to the water tender car from a fire hydrant.

Greasing the locomotive.

When an engine is stopped for display or servicing, it has a "Blue Flag" hung by the window which means this engine cannot be moved until the flag is removed.

Here is a close up photo of the large 80 inch driving wheels.

Close up of front.

Bell

Coal train rolling by UP 844.

See my blog titled" Largest Operating Steam Locomotive in the World - Union Pacific 3985 Challenger" for photos of the fleet of heritage cars that travel with Union Pacific Steam Excursions.

Since the entire route of the The Little Rock Express (Kansas City-St. Louis-Little Rock) followed the former Missouri Pacific Railroad route the excursion was accompanied by the Union Pacific Heritage engine UP 1982.

There are six Union Pacific Heritage deisels that are painted in the colors of the former railroads that were merged into the Union Pacific system. The engine is numbered with the year of merger of that railroad with Union Pacific. Thus UP 1982 for the year that the Missouri Pacific railroad was merged into Union Pacific. All these heritage engines are EMD SD70ACe engines which have AC traction motors providing a total of 4500 HP of power.

The other five heritage engines are:

Western Pacific UP 1983