(The following story by Phil Anderson appeared on the Topeka Capital-Journal website on October 2, 2010.)
Union Pacific’s hulking Challenger still draws crowds on rare road trips
TOPEKA, Kan. — Back in the mid-1930s, when he was a boy growing up in the Morris County town of Dwight, Bob Bach would hop slow-moving trains pulled by steam engines as they chugged into town, then leap off of them as they passed by large sand pits near the stockyards.
The trains would be moving so slowly, he said, that he could catch up with them a few seconds later and do it all over again.
On Saturday morning, the 84-year-old Bach was reliving those memories as he joined an estimated 200 others who ventured down to the Great Overland Station, 701 N. Kansas Ave., to see the Union Pacific Challenger, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, roll into Topeka.
“I think it’s great, ” Bach said of the Challenger coming to Topeka. “This brings back a lot of memories.”
Those who turned out Saturday morning at the Great Overland Station ranged from small children to older adults. Many lined the railroad tracks in anticipation of the locomotive’s arrival.
Larry Mathews, of Topeka, kept track of the Challenger’s progress on his iPhone, which was getting updates every five minutes from the Union Pacific’s website.
Dressed in a railroad engineers cap, overalls and a bright red bandanna, 2-year-old Ethan Wallingford sat on the shoulders of his father, Joe Wallingford, 35, trying to catch a glimpse of the train as it arrived at the Great Overland Station from the west.
“His whole life is really just defined by trains,” Joe Wallingford said of his son. “He didn’t even get it from me. It’s just the way it is. We watch trains on TV and YouTube.”
After the train made a noisy arrival with several high-pitched toots and puffs of white smoke at 10:19 a.m., about 19 minutes later than scheduled, it came to a squeaky stop outside the Great Overland Station. Dozens of people then crowded around the mammoth machine for photos.
The size of the Challenger came into focus as people stood next to it, dwarfed by the gigantic locomotive that is 122-feet long and weighs more than 1 million pounds.
It was built in 1943 for fast freight service and was retired in 1959. In 1981, it was restored to running condition by Union Pacific employee volunteers for special service. It is based in Cheyenne, Wyo.
The Challenger was on the way to Sedalia, Mo., for that town’s sesquicentennial celebration. The 2,200-mile trip celebrating railroad heritage, which started in Cheyenne, Wyo., will take the train as far east as Gorham, Ill., a small town located 90 miles southeast of St. Louis.
Mark Davis, a spokesman for Union Pacific, said the Challenger — also known as the “3985” — had been in the shop being refurbished for the past two years. The trip through Topeka, he said, was the locomotive’s “first time out” since being reworked.
He said the train uses “No. 5 fuel,” which is made of recycled motor oil. The train is run by about 10 crew members.
The Challenger departed Marysville in north-central Kansas on Saturday morning before arriving in Topeka.
The first portion of the trip earlier this week had the Challenger pulling a mile-long Barnum and Bailey Circus train with 65 cars from Speer, Wyo., to Denver.
During its 30-minute stop in Topeka, it picked up members of the Great Overland Station museum, who paid $100 each for a ride to Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., where the Challenger will be on display Sunday before moving on toward Sedalia.
After arriving in Kansas City around noon on Saturday, the riders were to be transported by bus back to Topeka.
Don Bleam, 64, of Topeka, was one of those who was planning to take the train to Kansas City.
“I’m a train enthusiast,” he said. “I belong to several organizations. I look forward to riding the rails, like I did when I was a kid, going back east.”
In those days, he said, he rode the Rock Island lines. Though it and many other passenger lines have folded through the years, giving way largely to Amtrak, Bleam said he believed commuter trains could become more prominent in the nation’s transportation system someday.
“I think they will,” he said. “The more fuel costs rise, along with the inconvenience of air travel, I think there’s going to be a comeback.”
Those wishing to catch a glimpse of the Challenger will have another chance, as it is scheduled to arrive at 10 a.m. Oct. 12 for about 30 minutes at the Great Overland Station. It is due back in Cheyenne on Oct. 14.