up 4014 "Modded" IRL?!

[dtrainBNSF1]

Hey guys.

Having just recently gotten back into TS20XX now that I have a new laptop I purchased the Wasatch Grade just yesterday and downloaded FanRailer's Big Boy mod and decided to check his work since I've modded the Big Boys previously. First thing I noticed was his max tractive effort which he has set as 138kLbf. Now as I've always known them the Big Boys produced 135,375lbf so I wondered where FanRailer got this figure. Dug around at SteamLocomotive.com and low and behold they have the 4884-1 series of locomotives rated at 138,240lbf with 24x32in cylinders pressed to 300psi while the 4884-2 series is rated at 135,375lbf with 23.75x32in cylinders pressed at 300psi. This weirded me out even further because last I checked though the 4884-2 weighed more, had slightly more water but less coal, and had slightly different internal dimensions in the boiler the 2 classes always had the same cylinder dimensions and always produced 135,375lbf. So I checked the notes.

There I found a note about the 4014's restoration:

"Jim Wrinn confirmed to Chris Hohl that boring the cylinders had increased their diameter to 24" (610 mm), which raised the initial tractive effort to 138,240 lb (67,205 kg or 614.9 kN)."

So I jumped over to Union Pacific's Steam website to see 4014's published dimensions. UP's site lists 4014's cylinders as 23.75x32in cylinders producing the normal 135,375lbf. UP however also claims 4014 can hit 7000hp at the drawbar, but no 4000 ever hit 7000hp in service so I figured they must have done something to 4014 during restoration. Wikipedia (I know, not a scholarly source but I had to check it) has separate listings for the Big Boys and 4014, and for the Big Boy article it lists 135,375lbf while 4014's article lists her as 138,240lbf with the larger 24x32in cylinders.

So it seems that UP "modded" 4014 by reboring her cylinders to 24x32in to increase her tractive effort and it seems that this change (and perhaps a few other things) have increased her drawbar horsepower to 7000hp but UP's official site is still reporting 4014's old "in-service" specs. SteamLocomotive.com is still reporting it wrong, however, as they are listing the whole 4884-1 class as having 24x32in cylinders when it is only 4014 which has had the increase in power - the rest of the 4884-1 class (4000-4019) still had 23.75x32in cylinders.

Crazy stuff.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

There is probably no way to get new cylinder blocks cast, so boring the cylinders under the restoration program? New pistons can still be fabricated in a well equipped machine shop??

[dtrainBNSF1]

Well, they did have to revamp the whole shop in order to even start work on 4014 and Ed Dickens still goes on about the crew having to strip down the whole loco to bare metal and having to rebuild a lot of the parts from scratch in-house and putting it all back together again. A lot of parts on 4014 aren't repaired or refurbished - they are brand new. Some of the larger parts needed initial machining elsewhere but most of the work was done in Cheyenne at the shop.

I'm still hunting down sources myself, especially about the cylinders.

[dtrainBNSF1]

Here it is: proof the 4014 has indeed been modified from its original condition (besides being converted to oil). This screenshot comes from a clip from when 4014 was on public display in Marshall, Texas uploaded by Union Pacific Railfan of Texas. He managed to take a zoomed in look at the side of 4014's cab. Note the numbers on the side of the cab. These designate 4014 as a member of the 4884-1 class with 68in drivers with two 24x32in cylinders. Normally it should read 23 3/4x32in cylinders. So 4014 does indeed carry 24in cylinders and the UP crew have changed the numbers on the side of the cab. 4014 then is the most unique member in its class, not only being the only operational member but also is now the most powerful member of her class.

Interesting find.

2020-07-26.jpg