Hot Steamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FEF-3 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > Of course it would make it through those
> tunnels.
> > SP
> > cab forwards did and UP 3985 did.
> >
> > So far, there i9s no indication they will run
> > anything
> > west after GS.
>
> The Big Boys are abit longer than the Cab Forwards
> and also the UP 3985... might be close clearances
> in some of them. If they run any steam west I
> imagine it would be the UP 844 to Sacramento and
> return in 2019. SP 4449 would be appropriate and
> a great unique PR move for the history of the
> western end, but I don't see UP going for any
> other locomotives other than their own to
> celebrate.

I should have said "without issues." Yes an SP AC
is shorter than both a Challenger or a Big Boy, but
not by much, and when the tunnels and sheds were
enlarged for the AC's, they made them larger than
absolutely necessary to clear ACs at the time, to
allow for future, even longer and larger locomotives
so they wouldn't have to do it over again. Same
applies to the clearance in cuts on curves and the
spacing between main and side tracks or between two
main lines, especially on curves.

In today's culture, that would be called expensive
overkill. In those days, it was thinking about
the future and that it usually costs less to do
something a little bigger than absolutely necessary
the first time than to have to do it twice.

Same applies to the bridges built in the early 1900s,
many of which are still serving well today.