# UP #844 steaming through Livingston, Texas



## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

Just in case I haven't bored you enough with yesterday's photos and video of Union Pacific's #844 steam locomotive excursion through Texas, here is some more from this morning's adventure.

#844 stops in Livingston for 1/2 hour of servicing. Note there is no siding here. He just parked on the main line.
http://s1257.photobucket.com/albums...on=view&current=UP_844_TrinityRiverBridge.jpg 


 

Here he is 11 miles south of Livingston steaming across the Trinity River bridge.


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## Phippsburg Eric (Jan 10, 2008)

She sure looks like she stopped up traffic in town, blocking the road right if front of the courthouse must be the main drag! what a show. thanks for sharing!


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice Sailor Don. Called Steve this afternoon and he was watching 844 from the statios downtown. Would like to see her but have other things on menu.


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

If only the daily commuter would offer such motive power. Excellent setting in downtown and what a turn out. Who says that steam engines have no interested to the general public...


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

Posted By Charles on 26 Oct 2012 05:07 PM 
Who says that steam engines have no interested to the general public... 
It was quite a turn out for a town of 5,500 on a cold, overcast weekday morning. I estimate at least 90% were there because of UP #844. The rest were doing routine business in town.

Two guys that appeared to be in their mid-twenties asked me if I knew why the train was parked in the middle of town. I attribute this to the "dumbification" of America. 
They had no earthly idea of what a steam locomotive is, or what its contribution has been to the growth of the United States. They were born into an age of diesel locomotives.
I felt like telling them it ran out of gas, but I figured they would just beat me up for being a wise guy.


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

I got to the Amtrak station a couple of hours after she arrived in Houston. She is gorgeous, looks like she has a new boiler jacket since the last time I had seen her. I got to see her take on fuel, water and grease. The man in the fuel truck told me that she now burns recycled motor engine oil. That's right.......recycled car engine oil. He should know, the U.P. workers signed his papers when he was through filling up the tender.

Watching them grease her was really cool. They attached an air hose to the engine that powered a heavy tool that pumped the grease into the many grease fittings along the rods. One fella held the tool while another feed bars of grease into it. The air impact from the tool was so loud I had to cover my ears. This was a dark thick grease. Then they came back with a five gallon pail of thinner light blue in color grease for everything else. This lighter weight grease was pumped from the pail by hand.

The air pumps were still working by steam on the front sides of the engine along with the D.C. steam powered generators on top. All this made lots of noise. Water and steam was still blasting out the lower release pipe down near the tracks under the cab.

I was told that they try to grease the stuff that gets the blue grease just about daily and the rods with the thick heavy grease every hundred or so miles. I notice how the huge drivers sit in bronze bearings. Even though I already knew this, it still amazed me.

It was so awesome to be so close to this engine while they did all this maintenance. I actually got grease on my hands. A day I will never forget.


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

Posted By Steve S. on 26 Oct 2012 07:17 PM 
She is gorgeous, looks like she has a new boiler jacket ...

The restoration and maintenance for #844 is the best. The high gloss black finish on the boiler jacket is better than my Harley Davidson.









They keep the finish in museum quality conditon by protecting it from contaminants that might be ejected from the stack when starting up. Sort of like in the photo below.


 
Of course they remove the protective cover when running.


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Yes.........I used to be a little too serious about keeping them clean.







They do look much better with a little grunge on them.


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

Here is a link to the Houston Chronical website with photos of #844 arriving in Houston.

Houston Chronical Photographs of #844


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair. Thursday, on it's way to Lufkin it went through these little towns made famous by Tex Ritter's song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t76Hw_Gip8U


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTex...-Texas.htmPosted By jfrank on 27 Oct 2012 09:14 AM 
Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair. Thursday, on it's way to Lufkin it went through these little towns made famous by Tex Ritter's song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t76Hw_Gip8U


Tenaha and Timpson for sure, but Google Map didn't recognize Bobo, TX and Blair, TX is out by Abilene. Not exactly on the track from Shreveport. Missed it by 474 miles. 
Maybe the names of the towns have been changed since Tex Ritter's time. 

Edit Update:
I didn't search far enough into the internet. Bobo was a town in Texas in the late 1800's. It even had a post office once (more than 100 years ago). Now the town is just a historical marker on the side of the road.




http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/Bobo-Texas.htm


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SailorDon on 27 Oct 2012 03:25 PM 
http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTex...-Texas.htmPosted By jfrank on 27 Oct 2012 09:14 AM 
Tenaha, Timpson, Bobo and Blair. Thursday, on it's way to Lufkin it went through these little towns made famous by Tex Ritter's song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t76Hw_Gip8U


Tenaha and Timpson for sure, but Google Map didn't recognize Bobo, TX and Blair, TX is out by Abilene. Not exactly on the track from Shreveport. Missed it by 474 miles. 
Maybe the names of the towns have been changed since Tex Ritter's time. 

Edit Update:
I didn't search far enough into the internet. Bobo was a town in Texas in the late 1800's. It even had a post office once (more than 100 years ago). Now the town is just a historical marker on the side of the road.




http://www.texasescapes.com/EastTexasTowns/Bobo-Texas.htm 

Both Bobo and Blair have withered away since the end of WWII. However, the residents are still there, but they are dead. Both towns have a historical cemetary that is still present. You can find the Blair cemetary south of Timpson at the junction of FM2667 and Co Rd 4775. The town was right there where 2667 crosses the track. Bobo is located half way between Tenaha and Timpson. There is little left there either but the cemetary. It is located south of Hwy59 a few blocks on Co Rd 4649. Tenaha and Timpson are still thriving little towns.


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Was not able to be at the Amtrak station when 844 left, but living within about 3 miles of the main line I could hear her blowing her steam whistle in the distance. My Dad used to tell me that different engineers had their own way of blowing the whistle when near the roundhouse so all would know who was running that engine. It was so awesome to stand in my front yard and hear her blowing in the distance. Sure made me miss my Dad, but in such a good way.


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## artgibson (Jan 2, 2008)

I was walking my dog Skippy, we are probably 2 mile away from UP tracks on Hempstead and I told Skippy that we could hear the 844 for a good 10 minutes or more while she was making her way toward Hempstead and the to Hearne. Boy she sure sounded great.


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Took some pictures of the engine and train on display in Houston and today's departure to Hearne. We followed it as far as the service stop in Navasota.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfrank...885430052/


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Great pictures John. I really liked the video too.


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

I was watching "jfrank" videos and noticed that the observation car (and perhaps more) were missing from the train.
The following is a screen shot from my video of Oct. 26 as the train passed over the Trinity River bridge 11 miles south of Livingston, TX.

 
Did they leave some of the passenger cars in Houston?


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Would be a great addition to gauge one live steam if Aster were to follow up the Challenger with the FEF!


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Great video. 

Thanks for posting


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By SailorDon on 03 Nov 2012 06:10 AM 
I was watching "jfrank" videos and noticed that the observation car (and perhaps more) were missing from the train.
The following is a screen shot from my video of Oct. 26 as the train passed over the Trinity River bridge 11 miles south of Livingston, TX.

 
Did they leave some of the passenger cars in Houston?




Don, the rest of the cars were on a separate train pulled by the MKT heritage diesel. I took a pic of it as we left Navasota. It was waiting clearance to follow 844. If you go back to my pics on flikr you can see it.


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

Posted By jfrank on 03 Nov 2012 09:42 AM 
Don, the rest of the cars were on a separate train pulled by the MKT heritage diesel. I took a pic of it as we left Navasota. It was waiting clearance to follow 844. If you go back to my pics on flikr you can see it.

John,

Thanks for posting photos and videos from the Houston end of the trip.

I wonder why they did that - separate the passenger cars? To share the heritage event with MKT? To save wear and tear on the steam locomotive by not having to pull such a heavy load? Maybe the separated cars were destined for another route?

It just doesn't seem right to break up the nice set of passenger cars for the trip back home.









 

It doesn't look right to have the string of passenger cars without the observation car at the end of the steam locomotive train. 

What were they thinking!


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Don, 
They did something similar here in Az last year. 
It came through on the Transcom in full regalia, but they shortened it to go to Phoenix, leaving some at the Piachio yards for the trip west. Phoenix is at the end of a branch line. I think the logistics of a train that long presents problems at places no longer set to handle passenger trains. 
Another thought is they run trains similar to what ran there... where ever there is. 
I don't know exactly how they broke it up, I wasn't up there. 

John


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## SailorDon (Jan 6, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 03 Nov 2012 12:22 PM 
I think the logistics of a train that long presents problems at places no longer set to handle passenger trains. 

John John,

By counting cars, it seems as though the train was split in half for the segment of the trip departing Houston and beyond.

In John Frank's video when departing Navasota, the Reed Jackson (dining car I think) was at the end of the string of cars. It was the 7th car when counting the extra water tank car and the diesel as 1 car each.

There were 16 cars in the consist as it arrived from Nacogdoches, Lufkin, Livingston, Cleveland, etc. It probably arrived in Houston with 16 cars and was separated into 2 trains there.

(Too be historically correct I should have mentioned the extinct town of Bobo, Texas as John Frank pointed out in a previous reply to this post. Don't forget Bobo!)


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