>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Train enthusiasts and others marvel at Engine 844 at the Union Pacific rail yard in La Grande Monday. (Observer photos/PHIL BULLOCK).

- Bill Rautenstrauch

- The Observer

When Number 844 rumbled to a stop at the Union Pacific rail yard in La Grande Monday, hundreds of people were waiting to welcome her.

Some came out of curiosity. Others where there out of pure, unadulterated love.

"I've ridden with her several times, and I just wanted to see her again," said 92 year-old LaVern Draper, a Union resident who worked 40 years for the UP before retiring in 1976.

Draper was a conductor back in the days when 844, the last steam locomotive built for UP, pulled the Portland Rose passenger train.

La Grande was a regular stop, and Draper made the Portland run often. He was the man in charge of details.

"Transportation, billing, loading and unloading, helping people off the train and telling them to watch their step," he said. "The engineer's the boss of the engine, and the conductor's the boss of the train."

Number 844 set out last week from Cheyenne, Wyo., pulling a vintage excursion train on a heritage tour of the Pacific Northwest.

By the time the train returns to home base, it will have passed through whistle stops and major terminals in Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

Thousands have seen her already and thousands more will before the tour is done.

"It's been a pretty good trip so far," said Engineer Lynn Nystromof Cheyenne. "The highlights have been the scenery and the people."

In all, nine crew members and two volunteers, nearly all from Wyoming, are staffing the train.

Also on board Monday was Margo Bieker, a UP corporate relations specialist.

Bieker, who rode the train to La Grande from Boise, said she is impressed with the engine's efficiency.

"It's beautiful. It's a smooth ride and it goes fast on the straights," she said.

She said she is happy to be a part of the tour, and added that she is a firm believer in UP's heritage program.

"We have a responsibility to our history," she said. We feel this builds morale and support for the railroad. It's good public relations."

Number 844 went into service for Union Pacific in 1944. A high-speed passenger engine, it pulled such widely known trains as the Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, the Challenger and the Portland Rose.

When diesel-electric locomotives took over all passenger train duties, 844 was placed in freight service in Nebraska between 1957 and 1959.

It was saved from being scrapped in 1960 and held for special service. It has run hundreds of thousands of miles for UP's heritage program.

Beginning in 2000, the locomotive underwent an extensive overhaul. The work affected the running gear, pumps, valves and springs.

The firebox was replaced and extensive boiler work was done. The cab interior also was refurbished.

Shortly after the train pulled into La Grande, fireman Jack Wheelihan, from Chicago, sat in that immaculately redone cab and talked about his job.

"I'm responsible for maintaining the level of pressure in the boiler," he said. "The job is to keep the steam level at 300 pounds no matter what the engineer does."

An oil-fueled fire heats water to generate the steam. Wheelihan said 844 uses about 12 gallons of oil and 120-150 gallons of water per mile.

"The harder the engine's working the more you burn," he said, adding that the train carries enough oil and water for a day's travel.

Wheelihan, 65, said he comes from a railroad family. He took an interest in trains when he was in junior high school.

He said learned a lot of what he knows about steam engines by hanging around in roundhouses and asking questions.

Steam power was taken for granted back then. Now, the knowledge he accumulated is considered specialized.

"It takes a lot of experience to know the causes and effects of steam," he said. "There are very few young people coming along who are interested in this. All they've ever seen is the diesel, and they haven't even seen the real old diesels."

But in La Grande, for this day anyway, interest in steam seemed high. Down on the ground, the crowd that turned out to look and take pictures was growing.

Among the visitors was David Arnold, La Grande. He had plenty of reasons for coming, not the least of which was a lifelong love affair with trains.

If things had worked out just right back in the 1970s, Arnold would have gone to work for UP. He interviewed for a job, but a back problem kept him from being hired.

He went on to become an educator, and today teaches at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton. But he never has been able to stay away from trains.

An active member of the Friends of the Joseph Branch, Arnold is a volunteer conductor on the Wallowa-Union Railroad's Eagle Cap excursion train.

He's seen 844 a number of times in his life, and he wouldn't miss a chance to see her again for the world.

"I began to write my master's thesis on the UP and I've been following the steamers around since then," he said.

The first time he saw 844 was at the roundhouse in Cheyenne in 1974. He said he thinks the old locomotive looks just fine now.

"It's been fixed up quite a bit. Back then, it was like an old ghost," he said.