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  • Joseph P. Farrell posted an update 6 years, 12 months ago

    Well it has happened… Union Pacific has finished the restoration of the articulated Big Boy 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive, and this video catches it being given its first steam up since the restoration outside the shop in Cheyenne… ponder that one folks: Union Pacific knows (once again) essentially how to construct a big articulated steam locomotive… I wonder why all the expense? And I can’t imagine it’s just so “railroad days” can have steam locomotives show up, especially one this powerful:

    • Some high octane: a link between steam turbines and the torsion effect…

    • Steam locos, apart from being time machines that can turn crusty old timers like me into gleeful little boys, would also be able to survive an EMP.

      • I actually blogged about this a couple of months ago… I agree, and the US Army has been restoring steam switching locomotives

        • So you did, sir (06Aug18!)! It’s a development which fits well with owning our human culture, as opposed to digital transhuman culture. I don’t know whether it’s a thing in the US; but you’re probably aware that the UK is dotted with standard- and narrow-gauge steam railways, now run as tourist attractions (usually by enthusiasts). The Festiniog Railway in Wales, for example, has been in operation since the 1830s.

        • Just curious … would these operate if EMP’d?