August 18, 2000
Today was our second chance to thoroughly cover Union Pacific's 3985 Challenger locomotive and Passenger Train in Los Angeles for the 2000 Democratic National Convention. TrainWeb's Ray Burns and Saylor Runyon took the first Amtrak Pacific Surfliner of the day to Los Angeles to take advantage of a golden opportunity to get up close and personal with UP 3985. On Wednesday, a railfan by the name of Gregg Hoel befriended a Union Pacific security guard in Los Angeles. Apparently, Gregg mentioned TrainWeb and asked the guard if we could come to LA to take photographs! The guard said yes, and Gregg delivered to us the promising news.
When Ray and Saylor arrived this morning, they were able to locate that guard, and he gladly let them into the UP compound. Upon stepping up the stairs that allow a view into the cab of 3985, they were greeted by Robert Krieger, a veteran Union Pacific steam & diesel engineer who is the engineer of the UP 3985 and the UP 844. Ray asked if they could enter the cab of 3985 to take 360x360 virtual reality photos! Robert said sure, but no sooner did Ray and Saylor enter the cab than a different security guard and her supervisor demand that they step down! Ray explained that Robert allowed them to be in the cab. After verifying that with Robert, who was signing papers regarding the oil he just put in the locomotive, the guards reluctantly backed off. After giving many thanks to Robert for his graciousness, Ray and Saylor headed to the tool car behind 3985, which had been temporarily converted into a UP Steam Souvenir shop! Again, the two were met with warm railroad hospitality, this time from from Mary, 3985's concessionier. She warmly welcomed them and explained how the tool car came to be a gift shop.
Clearly, we would not have been able to provide such wonderful coverage of UP's equipment if it wasn't for the thoughtfulness and generousity of a number of individuals, all of whom we wish to thank dearly. This was a perfect example of how support from railfans and railroad employees alike keeps our site worth coming back to!
Today's Photos From LAUS (Sony Mavica FD-73):
In conjunction with the 2000 Democratic National Convention, Union Pacific, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, and Canadian National have all brought to Los Angeles Union Station their executive trains. This is not only for publicity, but also for the sake of entertaining VIPs and politicians attending the convention. Security is extremely tight at Union Station this week, and we were unable to get interior photographs of any of the equipment. In fact, we were not even allowed to come within 100 feet of Union Pacific's "compound" at the Garden Tracks, where Challenger steam locomotive 3985 and the executive train are being housed. Numerous private cars which are normally stored in the Garden Tracks have been displaced and are now sitting in the run-around track between tracks 10 and 11 at the station.
BNSF has no locomotives on display with their executive train, which is not as tightly secured as UP's equipment, sitting on track 12 of Union Station. CN's equipment is coupled with the BNSF cars and they are on display together. So, despite their decision to call off the proposed merger, these two railroads are still working together closely.
Our Photos From LAUS (Sony Mavica FD-73):
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