Reporter's fantasy fulfilled

With a lot of luck, a train-nut reporter can fulfill his fantasy of sitting in a moving steam locomotive—Union Pacific Railroad 8444—especially if his boss is also a train fan. Which is how I came to be sitting behind engineer John Bowen of Nampa as he spun valves and jostled throttle levers, easing the huge hissing locomotive back out of the Boise train depot Monday morning. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the right time and it was like a dream coming true.

Being on the train to Boise in the first place seems to me to be a fluke. Fellow railfan Idaho Press-Tribune Managing Editor John Bromley was invited to make the trip by Roy Lacey of the National Transportation Week committee. Bromley assigned me to the story, knowing my fondness for trains, and then decided he and his wife Pat would also go along for the ride.

Author's Note: John Bromley is now Public Relations Director for Union Pacific Industries.

We joined the rest of the invited passengers, including Nampa Mayor Ernest Starr and his wife, at the Nampa depot, boarding the train and staking out a claim to one of two available Dutch doors. For those who haven't heard of this syndrome—Dutch doors are the best place to ride a train, with blasts of cold air in our faces, cinders and smoke and stream raining down upon us, and the noise of the wheels clacking over rail joints deafening us. It's great.

Bromley and I alternated taking pictures from the moving passenger car and Pat Bromley waved at surprised motorists at grads crossings. That, too, is part of the game. If you wave, they don't feel so silly waving back.

We watched startled horses race away from trackside as the engine whistle sang its melodious five-tone, rather melancholy whistle. We waved at a little girl whose face showed mixed emotions at seeing the fire-breathing monster bearing down on her hitherto-safe backyard.

Disembarking was a disappointment. The ride was short, but nonetheless enjoyable. Union Pacific public relations officer Clarence R. "Rocky" Rockwell joined us for more introductions to VIPs. Bromley sent me off to get juicy quotes from the engine crew. I stopped to confer with Idaho Gov. John Evans on his ride aboard the cab of 8444 and spoke briefly to UP chief mechanical officer Frank Accord of Omaha, Neb., the locomotive's "father."

Then Nampa trainmaster Vic Torres invited me up to talk with engineer Bowen. After warning me to be careful as I climbed up, I'm sure he laughed when I almost dropped my camera gadget bag.

I didn't realize that a backup move was planned, to get the train in position for its two-day National Transportation Week display when I asked Bowen for his thoughts. I looked up in time to see the ground below jerk forward. The first thing that ran through my mind was "what am I doing here? Why haven't they kicked me off yet?"

Bowen tugged the whistle cord three quick blasts. He pushed the air brake handle forward and then pulled the big throttle lever toward him. Ponderously, we backed across a switch and moved around the curve away from the station. Then he cut in the air, pushed the throttle shut and bled down the cylinder cocks with another knob. 8444 stopped responsively.

Again the throttle came open and forward we crept, through the switch into the spur track. Between myself and another photographer, we must have immortalized Engineer Bowen as he sat on his seat box—the classic steel-jawed, hawk-eyed railroader of legend. Slowly we moved back into position beside the Boise depot and my first ride in a steam locomotive cab ended. We only drifted back perhaps a quarter mile, and forward twice that distance, but what a thrilling ride it was.

If, as predicted by railroad officials, 8444 has only 10 years of active life left, then I consider myself extremely lucky. Not every man will have an opportunity to ride behind it, let alone on board. What a story I have to tell my future grandchildren.

Point of clarification: Article written during 25-year period when Union Pacific #844, a 4-8-4 Northern class F-E-F, wore a fourth digit in its operating number. It was renumbered to 8444 from in 1962 when a diesel was given the three-digit number. The locomotive reverted to its original 844 number in 1987.

Author's Note: UPRR has actually increased usage of No. 844 and another locomotive, Challenger 3985, during the 20 years since this was written. These locomotives have appeared in railroad celebrations in places as far away as Sacramento and Los Angeles, Calif.

Published by The Idaho Press-Tribune, Pioneer League Newspapers, Boise-Nampa-Caldwell, ID, 83652