Steam Locomotives and Such.

[pbillyi69]

 

[Steve]

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Tell us about your work. I bet you have some pretty cool stories to tell!

 

[pbillyi69]

I used to be an independent contractor for UP i was an onboard service person "Pullman Porter" to the heritage fleet on some trips and a rider mechanic on others. I am currently a conductor for UP. I have been behind the SP 4449, UP 844, UP 3985, UP 6900, and I cant remeber the big steamer in souther cali 614 or something. dont remeber. I also worked for The CZRC which iz the sikver fleet of Silver Lariat, Silver Rapids, and the Silver Solarium. I was a bartender on the Railroad Revival tour in 2012 when we had 17 cars and the folk bands that wanted to duplicate the grateful deads trip in the sixtys. we had Mumfor and sons, The old crow medicine show and Edward Shar and the magnetic zeros. that was fun. we went from oakland to the jazz festival in new orleans. we stopped every day they performed a concert got back on the train and would party until the early mor ning.

 

[pbillyi69]

I have so many stories i have been on a lot of private cars and met some amazing people and some not so amazing people along the way

 

[Steve]

I seen a few videos of mumfor and sons and old crow on that trip. They looked to have a hell of a time!!

 

[pbillyi69]

we had the pony express which used to be a baggae mail car that has been converted to a bar car. they rented musical insturments to put on the train and every night and a lot of the day there was live music being played there were three music videos shot during the trip and the whole thing was being filmed as a documentary. we picked up Jake Jillenhal im sure i spelled that wrong as a groupie in San Piedro the second night and he went the whole way with us without any luggage at all... lol

 

[pbillyi69]

it was a lot of fun the amount of alcohol the was co sumed every night is staggering. we probably went through 25-30 half gallons each night of Makers mark, absolute vodka, a hell of a lot of gin and at some point we picked up titos vodka which was new at the time and went through 30 gallons the first night. there was approx 500 people on board at any given time and the trip cost more than a million dollars to put on. oh yeah there was no shortage of weed being smoked continualy

 

[fossil]

My personal fav is the SP 4449. I have been part of the crew of it since I was a kid. My dad was a real big railfan. He was part of the crew as well. Not a foamer but fan for sure. I have traveled over a lot of the mainline for UP and BNSF as well as a lot of short line and rare mileage.

That's a beauty!

 

[Dub11]

Got to ride in the cab of the 844 from denver to cheyenne in 2008 when it left the DNC on its way to St Paul for the RNC

Lucky

 

[pbillyi69]

Lucky

i was so tired i fell asleep. we worked an average of 18hrs daily during that trip which was 30 something days andthe train left at 2 or 3 am i stayed awake for a while the cab was just jammed with people it had the crew the pilot crew a couple of managers and me and one of the cooks kindof silly with all those people

 

[ajschainsaws]

 

[fossil]

I'm guessing that would be a bad place to hang your laundry out.

 

[Dub11]

How step was that grade?

I'm guessing that would be a bad place to hang your laundry out.

Or set out a bunch of Levi's to get that "used" look hipsters pay extra for.

 

[fossil]

How step was that grade?


Or set out a bunch of Levi's to get that "used" look hipsters pay extra for.

I wear my jeans until the holes get too big to keep my feet from ripping them too much further. My 6 year old grand daughter was out with with her dad and a girl walked by with those designer holes in her jeans. The little one asked why they had holes in their jeans. Her dad said some people like that style. She replied, yeah, grandpa likes that style.

 

[pbillyi69]

that was a good video

 

[pbillyi69]

im glad i wasnt the shoveling coal

 

[exSW]

No wonder the Germans import our coal. Couldn't figure how he could burn that dirty and make that speed until I saw the helper.

 

[ajschainsaws]

No wonder the Germans import our coal. Couldn't figure how he could burn that dirty and make that speed until I saw the helper.

Checked our coal board earlier and alot of our coal comes from you and Australia, Columbia and russia
But it says we buy your coal through Germany but that'll change soon

 

[Dub11]

No wonder the Germans import our coal. Couldn't figure how he could burn that dirty and make that speed until I saw the helper.

Maybe they really wanted to show Mericans what rolling coal really is?

 

[ajschainsaws]

Maybe they really wanted to show Mericans what rolling coal really is?

Yeah you might be right there