How To Build A 1935 Steam Engine

Union Pacific has a steam program and is currently in process of moving Big Boy 4014 from Los Angeles to Cheyenne, Wyoming where it will be restored and returned to the rails for excursions.
 
If you're a train enthusiast, or even a "how things were done once upon a time" enthusiast, a must see is the Southern Museum of Railroad History in Kennesaw GA.

http://www.southernmuseum.org/

When I was a kid, the museum's primary exhibit was the steam engine "Texas", which was the engine that was used to chase Andrews' Raiders when they hijacked the General during the Civil War.

More recently, the museum acquired most of the Glover Machine Works, which was a locomotive factory which closed in 1930 or so. The factory was located in Marietta, GA and basically just closed one day. The factory was simply shuttered with everything in place. 70 years later, the family sold the land. All of the factory's tools, patterns, smelters, and even an intact engine were donated to the Southern Museum which has reassembled the entire production line. Very impressive. That portion of the museum is high quality enough to be a Smithsonian Adjunct museum, which is a gold seal in the museum world...
 
Or just watch the UP steam page for schedules of when 844 is running. She's in Cheyenne for the winter right now. Go see the real deal.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_844

Only steam locomotive never retired by a railroad. Built in 1944.

I preferred her temporary number of. 8444 years ago (issued because there was another locomotive running as 844 at the time) since that's back when grandpa was still a UP station manager. Somewhere in a move I lost the original teletype messages of one of her runs from Denver to Cheyenne along US 85 that grandpa brought home from the station. That still bothers me.

(And I've technically driven a modern diesel electric engine once. It was as a kid and thanks to grandpa who asked a southbound that had time if he would stop a couple miles away from a planned siding wait and let us board for his grandson. The engineer not only stopped but stuck me in the driver's seat while he found a way to stand on the deadman switch -- I was far too short -- while I drove. And then he gave me horn lessons at crossings -- two longs, a short, and a long and every engineer had their own signature cadence -- as we rolled into town and onto the siding, and lessons in reading the switches both by lights and mechanical flags.)

We have this hanging on our wall in the entranceway to the house. Line art of 844 with her temporary 8444 number, mounted with a UP badge and a shadow box above the drawing with all of grandpa's UP service pins (30 years) in it.

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The US 85 runs are particularly cool since the tracks parallel the highway for many miles and the usual running speed is somewhere around 50-60. With a good driver you can allow all the passengers to gawk at any UP train running full speed for fairly long distances between towns. And if they're running down around 50, you can catch up after slowing for Eaton, Ault, Pierce, and Nunn speed limit changes and/or traffic lights. Doesn't work too well through Brighton, La Salle, and points south of Greeley since the tracks aren't parallel and the speed changes and traffic lights are more plentiful.

There's some YouTube videos shot by rail fans chasing 844 up to Cheyenne or out of Cheyenne on that north-south line. You can hunt those down if you're interest is piqued.
 
Great video. It could be considered to be episode #1 of How it's Made.

My favorite line: Who will say the day of the craftsman is no more?
 
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