Originally Posted by Hot Water:
Originally Posted by electroliner:
Originally Posted by suzukovich:
OK, just what were/are those "certain issues with 3985"? During the fall of 2010, 3985 operated all the way east of Kansas City, and performed well, while 844 was getting crosshead guide repairs, in preparation for her 50th anniversary excursion from Omaha to North Platte, in December of 2010.
All sorts of lies were put forth concerning the "status" of 3985. The bottom line is, she has been relegated to the farthest away stall in the roundhouse, with her tender removed, her appliances removed, her superheater units removed and scrapped, and no work has been performed on her since the winter of 2010/2011
Hot water. Why would they scape parts, remove the tender and other parts unless there was never really any intention to returning 3985 to service. This also brings me back to the FRA inspection on the shop in the first place. If the FRA inspectors don't have the authority to do immediate inspections on programs, equipment based on the major red flag with 844 then who dose? I would if nothing else for the safety of the crews and the public. Is this were OSHA/DOT comes into play and where has the union been through out all this?. I would think they too would be interested in worker safety.
Hot Water is careful to point out what has not been done in the shop,in that time period leaving out what has been accomplished in that time frame.... here we go again.
electroliner, you specifically asked about the BOILER on 3985! Wahsatch Railroad Contractors did LOTS of other work for the UP steam operation, including the complete rebuild/refurbish of the two auxiliary water cars. They also installed the European Design exhaust nozzle system on 3985, which didn't work and was subsequently removed and scrapped, and her original twinge exhaust nozzle arrangement was reinstalled (which took all of 3 or 4 days). Wahsatch Railroad contractors did NOT perform any work on the boiler of 3985, as that was done by in-house employees, Ed Smith and Scott Turley, both Union Boilermaker/Welders.
Heres what I do know. There are two versions of events that transpired at the UP steam shop leading to the departure of a certain individual who is well known as well as issues that are suggested to have been involved with 3985... Having lived in the corporate world, some events, some comments, some allegations, rumors etc never resolve the more pressing problem of moving forward. Whether what you say or they say is true or not true detracts from the job at hand. All sides play a PR game in the public purview whether by omission of details or hiding behind avatars or by using innuendo, etc.
You are, to say the least, very disgruntled about current management and it's a safe bet they are not thrilled with your public disparagement of them.
The only way a potential PR debacle can be avoided is pretty simple. UP needs to set the record straight and quash all of this nonsense by a simple status report on the scope of work being done there and their projected time frames. Perhaps we can agree on this.
Otherwise there is enough hubris to fill a couple of box cars on all sides. One thing I learned the hard way is to get in front of this kind of thing, report the facts and let the chips fall where they may. Otherwise this thread is a good example of what happens otherwise. The irony of this is that UP owes us nothing.
We want this we demand that..we fret over imagined or real slights to our expectations on a personal basis, when we are not stake holders and all the complaining has to go to those in charge, not to be left to fester by misdirection on goofy threads that go nowhere like this one. At the same time UP should just be more proactive in communicating resolutions to a potential PR problem. It takes two to tango. One side has to talk to the other directly.
As for me, all I want is steam where it belongs..either on the rails or being restored. We can perhaps agree on that as well.