Background In the late 1930s, Union Pacific (UP) appointed Otto Jabelmann as vice president of research and mechanical standards, where he and his team began building a brand-new 4-8-4 design; the
FEF class, which could handle both freight and passenger service. In 1937, the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, New York collaborated on the building first batch of FEFs, which were designated as
FEF-1s and were the first UP steam locomotives to operate at a boiler pressure of . constructed as a member of the FEF-3 class of
4-8-4 "
Northern" type locomotives. Upon its entry into service, the locomotive spent most of its career pulling a variety of passenger trains, such as the
Overland Limited,
Los Angeles Limited,
Portland Rose and
Challenger. From 1957 to 1959, UP 844 was reassigned to fast freight service in Nebraska when diesel-electric locomotives took over passenger service. After commercial steam operations ended in 1959, No. 844 was retained to be kept as an experimental snow melter along with
Challenger class No. 3710 while the rest of the FEF-3s were scrapped. In 1960, UP saw the potential of having a steam locomotive for public relations and excursions in a world where steam locomotives are a rare sight.
Excursion service Since 1960, No. 844 has run hundreds of thousands of miles as Union Pacific's publicity locomotive. The locomotive often pulled the annual
Denver Post-sponsored
Cheyenne Frontier Days train that ran round-trip from Cheyenne to
Denver every July before it was discontinued in early 2019. the
1984 World's Fair in
New Orleans; and the 50th anniversary celebration of
Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in 1989, when No. 844 performed 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. In 1981, it traveled to the opening of the
California State Railroad Museum in
Sacramento, along with
Union Pacific 3985, which had recently been restored to operational condition. In 1986, No. 8444 was scheduled to reunite with No. 4449 and travel to
Vancouver,
British Columbia for attendance in the Steam Expo event, as part of
that year's World Exposition, but their participation was cancelled at the last moment, since
Burlington Northern (BN) banned steam locomotives on their trackage, and UP tried and failed to gain permission to operate them over the
Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1987, No. 8444 was repainted into UP's Greyhound Scheme and was invited to an event in 1989 to celebrate
LAUPT's 50th anniversary along with No. 4449, UP E9A No. 951, SP E9A No. 6051, and ATSF F7A No. 347c. Then, No. 8444 raced No. 4449 up
Cajon Pass on their respective trackage with No. 8444 winning by default as No. 4449 had to stop due to a roller bearing issue. Over the weekend of October 14, 1990, No. 844 led a procession of special trains from
Kansas City Union Station to
Abilene, Kansas for World War II veterans to celebrate the 100th birthday of U.S. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower. The "Eisenhower Centennial Special" was composed of cars from the Union Pacific,
Burlington Northern and
Santa Fe Railway business fleets, with additional passenger cars provided by the
Norfolk Southern and
Chicago and North Western railroads. Also present in Abilene was General Eisenhower's command train, code-named "Bayonet", including the British
A4 steam locomotive No.
60008 and communication and staff cars from WWII's
European Theater of Operations. After the end of the 1991 excursion season, No. 844 was put in the shop for a major running gear overhaul in addition to other repairs. During that time, No. 844 was repainted from the passenger greyhound scheme to the freight black. It emerged from the shop in 1996. On June 21, 1997, on the way to the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS)'s annual convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, No. 844 and Union Pacific's E units pulled 18 passenger cars on the Union Pacific's soon-to-close
Tennessee Pass line, which included tracks on a narrow canyon shelf along the
Arkansas River. On June 24, 1999, while on display during Railfair '99, one of the 844's boiler tubes failed, and the locomotive was subsequently towed dead back to Cheyenne by the recently overhauled No. 3985. The tube was found to have been made of the wrong material during the overhaul in 1996, a discovery that prompted the replacement of the firebox in a complete overhaul that lasted from September 2001 to 2004. On September 9, 2004, the UP steam crew successfully test-fired the 4-8-4. It returned to operating service on November 10, 2004. On May 18–19, 2007, No. 844 teamed with No. 4449 to pull the "Puget Sound Excursion", a round trip from
Tacoma to
Everett on BNSF Railway tracks. On June 25 and 26, 2010, No. 844 made an excursion trip to
Milliken, Colorado's centennial celebration. In September 2012, No. 844 was used in "UP 150", a celebration of Union Pacific's 150th-anniversary celebration, hosted by the
California State Railroad Museum (CSRM). During that time, No. 844's tender derailed on a tightly-curved track from the Union Pacific's Martinez Subdivision to the CSRM. The tender was rerailed at 7:30 p.m. After the 2013 season, No. 844 was taken out of service for boiler work required by a change in the water treatment. It spent the year 2014 in Cheyenne and then received an early 15-year inspection the following year. On June 16 and 17, 2016, No. 844 was test-fired. On July 12, the Union Pacific Steam Team took the locomotive on a "break-in run" as a sort of all-systems check and dress rehearsal for its return to service. The run was described as a complete success. On July 23, 2016, No. 844 pulled the annual Cheyenne Frontiers Day excursion. In April 2017, No. 844 made its first run on the
Oregon Short Line Railroad to celebrate the 92nd anniversary of the
Boise Union Pacific Depot. Because of heavy snows and a wet spring, the trip was cut short, and the engine had to run light across the
Malad River because of a washed-out bridge. In December 2018,
Union Pacific requested
Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) waivers to exempt Nos. 844, 3985, and 4014 from federal
Positive Train Control (PTC) requirements; in February 2019, the FRA officials responded that such waivers were not needed. On May 4, 2019, No. 844 participated in the inaugural run of newly restored No. 4014. The train departed the historic
Cheyenne Depot following a christening ceremony for No. 4014. The two locomotives arrived at the
Ogden Union Station on May 9 for the city's Heritage Festival. They were on display at the station until May 12, when the return trip to
Cheyenne began. They arrived at Cheyenne on May 19, concluding the first run of No. 4014 in
excursion service. However, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, UP cancelled all of its 2020 steam excursions and stated that Nos. 844 and 4014 would not operate for the 2020 operating season. UP eventually resumed excursion operations with No. 4014 beginning in August 2021. No future excursions have thus far been scheduled for No. 844 since 2019 and the locomotive had not been running since then, although it is confirmed the locomotive is maintained to keep it in operational condition. UP have considered equipping the locomotive with PTC using a setup similar to the one on 4014.
Union Pacific "8444" From 1962 to 1989, No. 844 was numbered
UP 8444 because the railroad had given the number 844 to an
EMD GP30 locomotive. After the GP30 was retired from active service in June 1989, No. 8444 was renumbered back to No. 844. That GP30 is now owned by
Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City, Nevada, and operates periodically at the
Nevada State Railroad Museum Boulder City on
excursion runs. There is now an
EMD SD70ACe on the UP roster numbered 8444. ==Accident==