Museum Mondays - The Larry Ostresh Collection II
Continuing on with the theme of the Wyoming Colorado Railroad, this week we have some photos of Union Pacific 3985 on the Union Pacific wye in Laramie for a photo op with the Wyoming Colorado Railroad F-units. One of the final projects that Larry Ostresh worked on at the depot was developing a proposal for WyDOT to recreate a layout of the railroad wyes in Laramie that were torn up with the building of the new Harney Street viaduct. For a full explanation on the wyes and to see how they work, visit the museum and see the N-scale model of the Laramie North Park and Western (late 1940s era) - the precursor to the Wyoming Colorado scenic railroad.
Union Pacific 3985 stopped for a photo op with the Wyoming Colorado F-units on the Laramie Wyes.
UP 3985 returns to the Union Pacific trackage after turning on the wye.
Still a coal burning steam powered locomotive, UP 3985 would at times produce black smoke. This darkness was an indication that not all the fuel going into the firebox is getting burnt through and particles of coal are mixing with the exhaust fumes.
UP 3985 gets refueled using a crane to lift coal into the tender. With the new oil burning conversions on UP 844 and UP 4014 this process is much simpler. UP 3985, now retired, was also converted to oil in 1990.
While oil conversion is required to meet emission standards, it is the often dirtier smoke of coal burning locomotives that produced the classic steam engine look.