UP 3985 Visits Minneapolis/St. Paul

By Todd Madson (c) 2003

The UP 3985 (or as the Minneapolis Star-Tribune puts it, "The World's largest operating steam locomotive") visited the Twin Cities with a stopover just off of Hardman Avenue in St. Paul last year.

I took a number of shots, some including vehicles in the foreground just so you can appreciate the massive size of the locomotive and the fuel oil cars behind it (it was converted from coal to fuel oil at some point in the past).

The thing that amazed me was that the locomotive had been shut down for the evening but it was still emanating MASSIVE amounts of heat that you could feel from several feet away. The boiler in all actuality was still operating - it was idle but was being prepped for operation early the next morning.

Some guy decided he wanted to touch the boiler jacket and got burned. Idiot! He shoved his hands into a mud puddle to cool his hands down after that. Seriously - don't mess with a live steam locomotive - the heat is something you won't believe.

An engineer was hanging around near the locomotive and talked about how in the old days engineers loved running steam locomotives in the winter because the heat in the cab would really keep you nice and warm. But on hot summer days it was like a sauna in there.

Immensely impressive beast she be. They had a passenger car all set-up with t-shirts and UP memorabilia (mostly revolving around the steam locomotives and the UP Centennial 6936).

If you get a chance to see this in person or better yet operating, do not miss it!



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