Challenger Steam Locomotive

[ThrottleJockey]

Greenleaf



Special version modified for pullin coal trains uphill. a 2. 6. 6. 6 I think. Not Bigger than a Challenger or a Big Boy, just a little more yank under the hood!



Brian

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Heres a book you could look up.



"The Allegheny: Lima's Finest : on the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Virginian" by Eugene L. Huddleston and Thomas w. Dixon, Jr. (Hundman, 1984)



Took four new diesels to replace that bad boy! Heh Heh



Brian

 

[Greenleaf]

Got It, that helped...........................

1942, Lima built the first of the Allegheny type for C&O. This is the class H8 2-6-6-6.

C&O got 60 of 'em. In 1945 the Virginian had 8 copies made.

These engines were articulated with 221/2" by 33" cylinders, 67" drivers, weighed 753,000 lbs and tractive effort of 110,200 lbs. Worthington feedwater heaters, roller bearings on main axles and leading truck.



In contrast the last of the Challenger series employed 21" by 32" cylinders, 69" drivers weighed 627,000 lbs, tractive effort of 97,350 lbs.



Ok, I can't help it. I'm bias toward Norfolk & Western..... check this out. These are some of the engines O. Winston Link photographed along the New River... ...



N&W Y6b; 2-8-8-2

cylinder of 25"/39"dia by 39" stroke, 58" drivers, weighing in at only 582,900lbs but toting a tractive effort well over 152,000lbs





N&W 4-8-4 "J" Class (these are the streamlined suckers running through the Shenandoah)

27"x32" cylinders, 70"drivers, 300lbs steam,weighed 494,000lbs rated at 80,000 tractive effort, pulling a 15 car passenger train at... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... . 110MPH :--)







Greenleaf

 

[ThrottleJockey]

DANG! THAT is haulin' the mail!!



Got any pictures?

Oh, yeah, which was bigger, the Challenger or the Big Boy?



Brian

 

[Andy Perreault]

When my dad was a teenager during WWII, he spent a summer working for the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad. The iron ore mines in northern Minnesota were going full tilt because of the war, and there was a shortage of men to work the railroad, so the railroad hired high school boys to take care of some of the more mundane tasks. My dad would shuttle the D. M. & I. R. 's big Baldwin Yellowstones (2-8-8-4's, I believe) in and out of the roundhouse. 16 years old, and all that power at his fingertips! He still brags about that! He also worked on the ore docks in Duluth in the winter, "punching ore". The ore cars would come onto the docks, and often the ore would be stuck in the cars, so they had to climb up on the sides of the cars and punch at the ore with rods to get the ore to fall out of the bottoms of the cars. The ore would then fall through chutes in to the big ore boats that moved the ore to the steel mills in Cleveland, Gary Indiana, etc. He said that every now and then a train would come in with a seized bearing journal on a car, and the wheel would be white hot. Everyone would gather near it to get warmed up.

Andy

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Awesome!

 

[Greenleaf]

The Big Boy is a bit larger; 4-8-8-4

The challenger is a 4-6-6-4



I've got tons of photos.

Get yourself a copy of O. Winston Link's work;

Steam,Steel,and Stars

Most all of these photos are taken at night between 1956-1960 on the Norfolk&Western.

..... Simply breathtaking... .



I prefer to "shoot" the Shay geared locomotives in West Virginia myself Oo.



Greenleaf

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Thanks.



Talking to you makes me want to drive back to North Platte.



Is there a Big Boy on display somewhere?



Brian

 

[Greenleaf]

Yes there are. None are operational.

Pomona CA

St. Louis

Dallas

Omaha

Denver

Scranton PA

Green Bay

Cheyenne



There are web sites of organizations who operate or display these machines. Try the following.



Visit; www.cassrailroad.com



Greenleaf

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Thank you, sir!



Nice site



Brian

 

[rbattelle]

Classic thread. Vaughn, your image link is broken!



Anyone have a link to a schedule for the next Challenger run?



Ryan

 

[WDixon27]

i just looked on the UP web site a couple weeks ago and at that time the challenger had no scheduled runs, wouldn't be anything close to me anyway

Classic thread. Vaughn, your image link is broken!



Anyone have a link to a schedule for the next Challenger run?



Ryan

 

[scootergmc]

Here's your image:



#ad

 

[Lnwing]

RFD TV regularly airs shows featuring the steam locomotives. There's just something mesmerizing about those old machines!

 

[Royk]

I saw that Challenger a week or two ago on RFDTV's Saturday "Trains and Locomotives" show. Apparently, if UP is going to send this beasty somewhere far off, they put it to work while it is in transit. In addition to pulling it's support cars, it was pulling an 8,000 foot freight train (by itself) to earn it's keep. That's over 1. 5 miles of train! How many diesels would be assigned to that size train?



Railfan Roy

 

[hammersley]

In case you're interested in the Baddest of the Steam Loco's

Here it is... and BTW I was raised by my Grandfather who was a TRain Driver for the B&O - he had 52 years in when he retired in 1965... He saw the complete revolution from Steam to Diesel - and he always said - He loved Steam - but it was a heck of a lot more work... ... ...



http://www.steamlocomotive.com/misc/largest.shtml

 

[rbattelle]

Maybe I'm a bit off topic for this thread, but I figured it would draw the ire of the other locomotive fans around here.

Have you guys seen the show "Extreme Trains" on the History channel? I've been watching it, and I'm not impressed with the content. Not enough technical content, and the shaky camera work (which seems to be the "style" these days - to make everything look like a home-video from 1985) frequently makes it difficult to see details in the trains!

I was waiting with bated breath for them to do a steam train, and they ended up choosing UP 844. A beautiful locomotive, to be sure, but why not the Challenger!? For cryin' out loud, it's called "EXTREME" trains! Seems to me the Challenger (UP 3985) is the most "extreme" steam locomotive in existence!

I feel cheated. Am I missing something about 844?

Ryan

 

[fest3er]

Geez! Thanks for reminding me to get back to this!

UP X3985 rolled through Worthington, MN back in October.

I took a few pics.

About 1,000,000#, oil fired. Durned thing was nearly silent arriving and almost quieter departing!

PM me if you'd like a 14MP version of any of the pics for personal use only.

 

[Royk]

Yes, the shaky camera is getting really old. Maybe OK for the MTV kids, but not for a pseudo-documentary. I've always hated that technique. But my biggest gripe is that the host is way over the top, with his gangsta hand gestures and leaning into the camera. And can't he talk in a normal tone of voice? He's always yelling. He is such an idiot I'm considering muting the sound and turning on closed captioning. I bet his coworkers in Maine are glad to get rid of him for a while. Of course, maybe he's at the direction of the producers and director and doesn't have a choice. I'm guessing he works for the Maine Eastern, which runs through the area I vacation in every summer, and which I've ridden a few times. If I ride again, I'll have to ask the crew if they know him and get the scoop.



As far as using the 844 instead of the Challenger, I'm thinking the Challenger maybe isn't in running condition at the moment (or whenever the show was produced).



BTW, you may win the award for dredging up the oldest thread! :-laf



Roy

 

[rbattelle]

Nice photos, Neal. Have you considered submitting a couple of the best to railpictures.net?

Ryan