UP Steam Program Stars
Big release today!
—–===== HISTORY =====—–
The ‘Big Boy’, officially known as the 4000 Class, is an articulated steam locomotive built by ALCO and delivered to the Union Pacific during 1941 and 1944 to haul heavy freight trains over the Wasatch mountains in Wyoming and Utah. During revenue service, they proved to be a successful design, and were also used extensively over Sherman Hill in Wyoming. However, with the advent of dieselization, all 25 units were retired by 1963, with 8 being donated to various museums across the United States.
In 2014, the UP relocated Big Boy X4014 from Los Angeles to Cheyenne with the intention of restoring the locomotive to operating condition, to be part of its steam program. In 2019, the restoration was completed, and the locomotive has been operating ever since.
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The UP Heavy Challengers were articulated steam locomotives designed to pull fast and heavy freight trains on the UP railroad, in response to the increase in tonnage on freight trains in the late 1930s and early 1940s. A few units were equipped with smoke deflectors and also converted to oil burning while in service, and even pulled passenger trains. After the gas turbines and diesel-electrics took over operations on the railroad, the Challengers were retired by 1962.
in 1981, the unit X3985 was restored to operation by volunteers of the Union Pacific Steam Program, and pulled excursion trains alongside X844 (then renumbered to X8444) as a public relations tool. In 1991, the articulated was converted to an oil burner, which allowed it to travel more of UP’s rails. After several decades of excursion service, the Challenger would make its current last run in October of 2010, and was retired by the UP in 2020. In 2022, it was donated to the RRMHA, where it is currently being restored.
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Union Pacific’s 800 class was a series of 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotives designed to pull fast passenger trains over the UP system, being built by ALCO in 3 batches from 1936 to 1944. In the late 50s, they were reassigned to fast freight trains, and were subsequently retired in favor of newer diesel and gas-turbine locomotives, with the exception of one unit.
X844 was kept in the Cheyenne roundhouse for snow melting experiments, and was eventually reassigned to pulling occasional excursion trains all over the UP system. The locomotive would go on to have an extensive second life, and would participate in many activities, including doubleheaders with other locomotives (like X4449, X3985, X4014) and special railroading events like Railfair 1991. It is still operational to this day.
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—–===== MOD FEATURES =====—–
Big boy locomotive: Wing wings toggled with SHIFT-1 // Hood smoke deflectors toggled with L-1
Challenger locomotive: Wing wings toggled with SHIFT-1 // Hood smoke deflectors toggled with L-1
FEF locomotive: Wing wings toggled with SHIFT-1 // Mars lamp toggled with SHIFT-1 // Mars light toggled with L-1
Tenders: Lights toggled with SHIFT-1 // Oil conversion toggled with SHIFT-2
All items have livery support, feel free to make liveries with these mods! However, please do provide a link to the original mod, and don’t just reupload it the way it is.
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Hello everyone, I’m quite sorry for leaving you all waiting, I got really busy last month and I also lost motivation in playing the game, but I regained some motivation to finish this pack. I’ll hopefully start working on Timken’s Four Aces soon, and try to get it released as soon as I can. After that, I’ll make whatever locomotive interests me the most. I hope you folks enjoy this pack as much as I do myself!
