The Big Boy Leadership of Otto Jabelmann
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor that resulted in the United States’ declaration of war with Japan on December 8, 1941, the US had already been involved in the Allied war effort. The Lend-Lease program provided critical supplies to the British and Soviets to resist Adolf Hitler’s expansionist aggression.
In the 70 years before Hitler’s attack on Britain, the population of the American West was growing rapidly. Industrialization throughout North America, the abundant natural resources of the American West, immigration, and generational growth of families resulted in a nearly 1400% population boom in the region from 1870 to 1940.
The global political events in Europe and Asia and the domestic economic and demographic realities produced a substantial demand to move freight on a large scale. Completion of the transcontinental railroad system in 1869, including a critical link through the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, gave the Union Pacific Railroad a growing business opportunity and national responsibility during those seven decades.
While the original railroad infrastructure of the Union Pacifica Railroad through the Wasatch Mountains was a significant breakthrough, exponential growth in the demand to move freight through the region rendered it inadequate. Fifteen years before the US involvement in World War II, Union Pacific completed an upgrade through the Wasatch Grade. That improvement featured a double track and an eastbound grade with a climb that was substantially less than the first track laid more than a half-century earlier.
Despite all those improvements and advances, the geography still created a bottleneck for Union Pacific’s system throughout the 1930s. Longer trains with increased tonnage required the railroad to use “helper” engines to move the freight through the Wasatch Grade. More time, coal, water, and labor meant less profit for Union Pacific in the face of ever-increasing demand.
Facing these challenges, Union Pacific Railroad President Bill Jeffers tasked Otto Jabelmann, the company’s Vice President of Research and Mechanical Design, with developing a new steam locomotive that could master the Wasatch Grade, pulling 3600 tons without the aid of a second engine at a sustained speed of 60 MPH. That may sound simple enough, but in the summer of 1940, Jabelmann had no computer-aided design (CAD) systems on which to rely. He, his team of mechanical engineers, and those at ALCO (American Locomotive Company) had only their education, experience, and basic principles of steam generation at their disposal.
The result of Jabelmann’s effort, however, remains astonishing. The 4000 series steam engines, eventually dubbed “Big Boys,” remain the largest steam locomotives in the world. With 16 driving wheels arranged in an articulated 4-8-8-4 design, the Big Boys produced more than 6000 HP and could pull the equivalent of 90 fully loaded tractor-trailers.
Jabelmann’s contributions to us, however, go beyond the enormous scale of the size and capacity of the Big Boys. There are some leadership principles for us to glean from his work.
Concentration on specific elements results in the fulfillment of our mission. Union Pacific’s Big Boys were not the only contribution that Jabelmann made to the railroad’s fleet. Arguably, his work on the Challenger series was a more significant contribution to the company’s overall operation. However, the Big Boys were a specific solution to a particular problem in Union Pacific’s system - the bottleneck at the Wasatch Grade.
Regardless of what or who we lead, roadblocks, challenges, and inefficiencies develop. Taking time to recognize, study, and understand those can lead to the necessary specific solutions that will advance our overall mission.
For example, most pastors would quickly note that the fundamental mission of the church they lead is to make disciples. However, doing that involves a variety of phases and elements. Evangelism, for instance, is the introductory step of discipleship that is easy to ignore. In my experience, taking the time to understand and cultivate relationships with those around us is an essential element of evangelism that wanes as a result of so many other demands on our time or our personal interests.
As we see in Jabelmann’s work, concentrated attention on basic elements of the evangelism phase of discipleship can lead to a more effective and complete fulfillment of the over-arching mission.
Leaders find success in the face of constraints. The geography of the Wasatch Grade was not the only challenge that Jabelmann and those he led faced. The existing infrastructure, mechanical limitations of steam locomotives, and time limitations resulting from growing urgency were among the constraints that guided Jabelmann and the other mechanical engineers at Union Pacific and ALCO who designed the Big Boys.
Whether we lead a local church, a small business, a nonprofit, or a volunteer team, we, too, have constraints. Budgets, regulations, existing knowledge, or the willingness of others are just a few of the typical constraints our leadership faces. It may be tempting to view them as impossible hurdles to clear and give up on the mission before us. However, with time and attention, most, perhaps all, of the constraints we face can be overcome. Like Jabelmann, leaning on the relationships and expertise of others can help us see the answers to those obstacles.
What about you? What current challenges seem insurmountable? What constraints do you face? Who can help you dissect the phases of your stated mission to identify and overcome those challenges?
Enjoy your weekend.
If you want to learn more about Union Pacific’s Big Boys and the lone surviving operational locomotive, #4014, here are a few links to fuel your curiosity.
The views and opinions expressed in my Thursday Thoughts on Leadership are my own. They do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, or policies of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina or any affiliated churches.