Filmed in October 1983 by renowned railway documentary producer Nick
Lera, the giant Union Pacific ‘Challenger’ was at the time the largest operational steam locomotive in the entire world. Articulated on the Mallet principle, this 500 ton coal-fired giant was built in the 1940s to haul three thousand ton freights over the Continental Divide of the USA at an elevation of eight thousand feet. Restored after years in a museum, No 3985 made a celebration re-appearance on its old stamping ground, the famous Sherman Hill in the Wyoming Mountains. With classic run-pasts in the scenic boulder country near Laramie, this film portrait also features the rare privilege of a ride in the Challenger’s cab, showing the nine feet by fifteen feet firegrate being fed by a mechanical rotary stoker drawing on a 28-ton supply of coal in the tender. To make its operation in heritage service more viable, the 3985 was later converted to oil firing, making this film a dramatic record of the Challenger running at full power in its original condition.
Text (c) Nick Lera 2023
Narrated by William Hamilton.
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6 сен 2024
