Four Eight Four Wrote:
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> With all of this attention on weather they will
> have UP 4014 completed in time or not... there has
> not been any talk of what if UP 844 decides it is
> going to be stubborn and some issues arise when
> she is fired up?? Just seems like with time
> running down to these final couple of weeks that
> crew is stretched to their limits trying to finish
> up the 4014 and also needing to make sure UP 844
> is ready also?


Excellent question, which seems to have become glossed
over in all the foamgasms abut 4014. Consider this:

844 has to be ready to leave for Ogden the morning of
April 27. That means she has to be fired up, tested
out and hopefully a shake-down trip run (not just 10
mph up and down yard tracks), and on house steam to
warm up by the 26th. That is 10 1/2 days from now.

4014 also has to be finished by the end of the day on
the 26th because when 844 leaves, most or all of the
crew - and the tool car - goes with it and they won't
be back until about May 1 at the best, after leaving
a couple of crew members in Ogden to babysit and shine
844.

Assume they get back to Cheyenne on the 1st and get
back to work on 4014 on May 2nd. It will have to be
tested out and ready to go on house steam to warm up
on the 3rd, to be able to depart west on the 4th.
Under the best scenarios, that gives them 11 1/2 or
12 1/2 days to get everything done.

IMO, they can do all this, though it will be very tight
and there is very little leeway for anything to go wrong.
That is NOT to say it can't be done.

Also IMO, this entire drama has been pre-planned for the
sole purpose of keeping the droolers on the edge of their
seats and chewing their fingernails in anticipation so
when May 4 rolls around, everyone can gush about what a
great/near-impossible job was done to meet the deadline,
and herculean effort it involved.

Maybe somebody might even think of all the former employees
(a couple thousand) who have lost their jobs while gobs of
money and people have been shoveled unfettered into this show.