Double Heading Steam
When one locomotive couldn't handle the job, two joined forces to increase speed or conquer steep grades with heavy loads. Witness spectacular plumes of smoke as double-headed engines roar at maximum effort!
The 3985 Challenger
The 3985 Challenger
Union Pacific Steam! In one of our best double-heading sequences seen from both the air and from the ground engines 8444 & 3985 triumphantly take on Sherman Hill and Donner Pass. 11+ minutes. of double heading. Challenger 3985—one of the largest steam locomotives operating today—is seen with highlights from the history of the 4-6-6-4 Challenger engines built by ALCO between 1936 and 1943.
Ride with 3985 in 1981 on her first outings after reconstruction by a group of volunteer UP employees. Gorgeous aerials track 3985 as the engine doubleheads with #8444 over Sherman Hill. In the next sequence the two engines work together to crest a snowy Donner Pass. Follow 3985’s first solo expedition across Wyoming and through the Bear River Range to Pocatello, and the first fan trip down the city streets of Salt Lake, south to Provo, with breathtaking pacing against the Wasatch Range white with winter. The DVD includes bonus footage of 4-6-6-4s, a few 4-8-4s, and early diesels in the 1940s on the high Plains of Nebraska when Challengers did real work on the Union Pacific.
48 minutes