1862 was a year of highs and lows in American history. The country was in the middle of a civil war, and one of the bloodiest battles of that war took place in April at Shiloh, Tennessee; near the Mississippi border.
That same year, a stroke of President Abraham Lincoln’s pen created the Union Pacific Railroad as one of two companies to build the first transcontinental railroad.
A century and a half later, the Union Pacific was celebrating 150 years by sending its famous 4-8-4 #844 around the country. In late March, the locomotive hauled a 17 car special carrying Civil War reenactors headed to the 150th reenactment of the Battle of Shiloh.
Diverging Clear cameras filmed the train between Kansas City and St. Louis on March 27, and between St. Louis and Dexter, Missouri, the following day.
We filmed the locomotive operating at track speed across the flatlands, running along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and accelerating away from stops with a barking exhaust with a train heavy enough to make the 1944 Alco product work. Long pan shots at speed give great views of the engine in operation.
Come aboard for some of the best steam footage we have captured yet.
