Legendary locomotive to steam into Cache Valley

The Living Legend, a steam locomotive also known as Number 844, is coming to Cache Valley. It will arrive in Cache Junction on April 25th on what is nearly a 1600 mile round trip. On KVNU’s For the People program this past Thursday, Justin Jacobs, who is media relations director for Union Pacific, shared some of its history.

“The steam locomotive was actually the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific and delivered in 1944. By the time we had our 150th anniversary back in 2012, 844 had traveled enough miles to cross the U.S. four times,” according to Jacobs.

The locomotive is impressive, its engine and tender weigh around 454 tons and it is 114 feet in length. It will pull in to Cache Junction at about 10 a.m. and depart for Brigham City at about 10:30 a.m. where it will be at the Forest Street Crossing from 11:30 a.m. to 12 noon.

Jacobs said the crew really enjoys reaching out to the towns they serve and being able to provide some living history for young people.

“(We’re) just really looking forward to the crew being able to interact with the community, share a little bit of history. Because a lot of those youngsters, this is kind of new and foreign to them.”

He explains, “they might like trains like Thomas the Train. It’s not blue it’s a big black steam locomotive but similar in nature and (we’re) able to share some history with them, as well as with the whole community.”

After Brigham City the 844 will chug on down to Ogden where it will be on display at Ogden’s Union Station on Wall Avenue on Wednesday, April 26th from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can see its entire schedule at <a href=”http://www.up.com” target=”_blank”>www.up.com</a>.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

I agree to these terms.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.