Union Pacific has used its steamers in revenue freight
service at times -- either when checking out the engines
after major shop work or when deadheading back from a
special (where the passenger cars are either left behind
or sent to another location).

And, I think it at least one case, UP deliberatly ran
a steamer on a stack train for publicity purposes for
an intermodal customer.


There was a story in Railfan & Railroad a number of years
ago (if I recall correctly) where one of the UP steamers
was returning from a test run and a freight train in front
of it got into trouble. The dispatcher asked the steam
crew if it was willing to help, and they were. The
dispatcher had the steamer (I think it was the Challenger,
but would have to go back and look) couple up to the back
of the freight -- and after exchanging radio messages
with the freight crew, it began pushing.

The freight crew didn't pay any particular attention to the
number of the engine pushing and wasn't really aware of
what type of engine it was. At some point there was a
radio conversation (fairly common for manned pusher service)
with the head end crew saying something like "We're in
the sixth [throttle] notch. What notch are you in?"
And, the steamer replied something like, "We're in the
32nd."

Of course typical modern diesel locomotives only have eight
throttle settings -- while the throttle on a big steamer
can have a lot of click stops.

Some minor details -- like the actual throttle settings --
may not be exact -- but the story itself is apparently true.

-- Ernest