I am home now after spending 3 days and nights aboard the Shiloh Limited. What a trip! UP is a first class group for doing this. I never realised what all was involved in their operation. This is a little of what I learned from my talks with the crew. We will consider all to be "opinion" no fact. Take it for what you want. 3985 needs a lot of work and 1472, expect as many as 5 years. Unlikely to see 80mph again. They plan on keeping it at 65 or less. They are going to baby these engines a lot more to cut maintenance and repairs. This includes a new routine of stopping every hour or so for a 15-20 inspection of the locomotive and bearings/grease etc. (I found this rather annoying on such a long trip.) There is a strong drive for fuel efficiency, and clean burning. Count yourself lucky when you catch black smoke! However, they are committed to the steam engines doing 100% of the pulling. The big news concerns recent and future repairs that took place last winter and this coming winter. They are going back to the original as delivered specs on the locomotive. Every part on 844 that is not original, that came from a donor is being removed and measured, if it does not match specs, it will be discarded and a new one made to spec. 838 will never donate it's running gear. it's off by less than half an inch. 844 will be receiving new elephant ears this winter. Will we ever see a B unit diesel? No. There is no desire to add another engine to the heritage fleet. The quick starts and stops they are doing is murder on the diesel, and they like the convenience of turn and burn so to speak of wearing one down and tossing it in a repair line and grabbing a new one as needed. The B unit would need as much care as the steam engine. Unless there is a change at the top, there is a strong commitment to running steam. With the cost of a Superbowl commercial running 3.5 million this year, they said they would rather spend the money on steam. Speaking of millions, they said a trip like the Shiloh Limited easily cost them over a million, most of that in delays as a steam locomotive runs the wrong way on a mainline and takes a breather on the main every hour. Even things like reduced yard switching at late hours to keep things quite for those sleeping on board. Ever wondered why you can't buy tickets for most of their trips? UP is still bound by a 1971 non compete with Amtrak for passenger service. A group such a Lionel or Denver post or Blue Gray Alliance is more than welcome to reach an agreement to buy the entire train, and they in turn can sell tickets. The Shiloh Limited was donated,those of us on board only had to pay for food. However, in all seriousness we where instructed to wave and be friendly, as we where representing the company to the general public. In all they where great to work with. Willie James was neat person to get to know, and went out of his way to make something vegetarian for meals. Can't wait for the GCL!
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