Excursion Career
Since 1962 the engine has run hundreds of thousands of miles as Union Pacific's ambassador of goodwill. It has made appearances at Expo ’74 in Spokane, the 1978 dedication of the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah, the 1981 opening of the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans and the 50th Anniversary Celebration of Los Angeles Union Station in 1989 along with performing a side by side run with Southern Pacific 4449. On February 14, 1975 it pulled Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr from Denver, Colorado to Cheyenne, Wyoming with a pair of EMD SDP40Fs.
Over the weekend of October 14, 1990, the UP 844 led a procession of special trains from Kansas City Union Station to Abilene, Kansas, for WWII veterans to celebrate the 100th birthday of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The “Eisenhower Centennial Special” was a collaboration between the Union Pacific, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railroad business fleets, with additional passenger cars provided by the Norfolk Southern and Chicago North Western railroads. Present also in Abilene was General Eisenhower’s command train, code-named "Bayonet", including the British A4 steam locomotive #60008, communication and staff cars from WWII European Theater Operations. The UP 844 consist for that weekend included 21 units, including the tool and power car, a super dome and regular dome, lounge and observation, concession/baggage cars and chair cars in the following order: Columbia River, Western Lodge, Sunshine Special, Sun Valley, Texas Eagle, Portland Rose, City of Los Angeles, Challenger, Columbine, Western Special, Powder River, St. Louis, Iowa River, Harriman, Cheyenne, Cedar River, Chicago, Minnesota and Fox River.
On May 18, and May 19, 2007, the 844 made another rare appearance with Southern Pacific 4449 in the Pacific Northwest for the "Puget Sound Excursion", on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad tracks from Tacoma to Everett, round-trip. This excursion was a tandem run with both steam locomotives pulling a Union Pacific passenger train consisting of three to four dome cars and several coaches.
Today the locomotive runs occasional excursion and fan trips along UP trackage every year. On June 25 and 26, 2010 the 844 made an excursion trip to the Milliken, Colorado, Centennial Celebration. On rare occasions, it has been, and still can be used in revenue service.
In Fall of 2010, the Union Pacific opened voting to rail fans to decide where the coming season's excursion trains will operate.
In September, 2012 the 844 participated in the UP 150 celebration in Old Sacramento, CA. This event was hosted by the California State Railroad Museum, and was a celebration of Union Pacific's 150th anniversary.
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Famous quotes containing the words excursion and/or career:
“A little instruction in the elements of chartography—a little practice in the use of the compass and the spirit level, a topographical map of the town common, an excursion with a road map—would have given me a fat round earth in place of my paper ghost.”
—Mary Antin (1881–1949)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)