(The Denver Post published the following column by Dick Kreck on its website on May 16.)
DENVER — My eyes and ears were wide, wide open. All I remember is steam and heat and oil and the throbbing of a 600,000-pound monster beneath my feet.
There I was, standing in the cab of the Union Pacific Railroad’s massive Challenger steam locomotive, designated No.3985, as it rumbled into Cheyenne at the head of the annual Denver Post Train to Frontier Days.
I wasn’t the only observer gone ga-ga that day. Also crowded into the super-heated cab were Gov. Roy Romer, businessman Phil Anschutz and my favorite newspaper publisher Dean Singleton, all of us giggling like 8-year-olds with a gigantic model train on Christmas morning.
There is magic in a steam locomotive. Even renowned historian Stephen Ambrose wasn’t immune to its allure.
In “Nothing Like It in the World,” his history of the building of the transcontinental railroad, he wrote about his ride in the cab, “The engine is sacred for many reasons. It is in the cab of a locomotive that a mere man can control all that power, it is from there and there only that a man riding on a train can see ahead. It is the eyes, ears, brains, motor power and central nervous system for the long string of cars it is pulling along.”
At the throttle on both trips was Steve Lee, head of the UP’s steam program, the last still operated by a major American railroad, God bless ’em. The railroad has two operating steamers, the 3985, the world’s largest, and the 844.
Lee, who wears a large button on his UP ballcap that reads, “I am not Steve Lee” to keep rail fans at bay, has been the engineer for all 11 of The Post trips to Cheyenne, although a heart problem nearly derailed him last year.
He’ll be back this year when the train, made up of 16 vintage passenger cars, heads out of Denver Union Station at 7 a.m. on Saturday, July 19.
You’d think the burly Lee, who’s been driving the UP steamers since 1982, would be blase about the crowds the fiery beast attracts on its runs.
“I kind of get used to it (but) nothing else that the railroad does draws that much attention. In a lot of ways, it’s our only positive contact with the public. They’re not aware of the railroad at all – unless they’re waiting at a crossing.”
Though Lee’s been at the front end of all The Post’s trips, the crowds that line the tracks beside U.S. 85 north of Denver continually amaze him.
“We do this every year. It should be the normal thing around here (but) there are people at every crossing, in backyards. One year, we had a downpour on the way back but it didn’t cut the crowd. They stand out there in snow, rain and hail.”
Who can blame them? Seeing the shiny black 3985 thundering down the track at 70 mph is like watching a barely controlled tornado coming toward you. Hooray to the Union Pacific for keeping it alive.
Tickets for the July 19 trip go on sale Sunday.