April makred one of the major events of 2009. The return of mainline steam to Northern California! Union Pacific Railroad's western heritage tour brought with it FEF-3 #844 (build by Alco in 1944). This turned out to be one of the O'dark Thirty events, but seeing Big Steam on the high iron will get me out of bed early on any occasion. Here 844 is pictured at Verdi NV, ready to cross into California and do battle with the Sierra Nevada Mountian Range. Union Pacific is proud of it's heritage, and lucky for the ones who missed it isn't shy about rolling out it's Steam Locomotives to give the curious onlooker a first hand view.