Steve Lee

Lee died early on the morning of Sunday 25 October 2026 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at the age of 76. Railfan and Railroad Magazine reported his death the same day and Trains published an obituary by Kevin P. Keefe on 26 October. No cause of death was made public. He was survived by his wife Karen, daughter Jen, son Daniel, stepdaughter Stephanie Lamb and brother Gary, and the family made private funeral arrangements.

Steve Lee was born on 2 August 1950 in Vine Grove, Kentucky, a small town in the north central part of the state not far from Fort Knox. The town sits on the former Illinois Central line between Louisville and Paducah, now part of the Paducah and Louisville Railway, and it was on the Illinois Central that he began his working life.

Lee went railroading in January 1972 as a student fireman on the Illinois Central and became an engineer later the same year. In 1977 he joined the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific as a trainmaster and road foreman. During the Rock Island's bankruptcy he interviewed with Union Pacific, and in 1980 he became division general road foreman of engines at Cheyenne, Wyoming.

In 1989 he took formal charge of Union Pacific's Heritage Fleet at the Cheyenne shops, with its two operating steam engines, 4-8-4 No. 844 and 4-6-6-4 Challenger No. 3985, and a roster of vintage diesels and passenger cars. His official title was manager of train operating practices. Under him the program staged a string of high profile runs: No. 844, then numbered 8444, at the 50th anniversary of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in May 1989; both engines at Railfair in Sacramento in 1991 and 1999; and No. 3985 at the National Railway Historical Society convention in Chicago in 1993.

In November 1992 Lee and his crew took the Challenger about 1,300 miles east to former Clinchfield Railroad territory to pull the 50th Santa Claus Special for CSX, briefly renumbering it Clinchfield No. 676. "Bringing in this train, seeing all those kids, gave me a good feeling," he told Trains. "It may be the only steam engine these kids have ever seen."

He also sat on the Engineering Standards Committee for Steam Locomotives, which advised the Federal Railroad Administration on new steam operating rules in the 1990s. He retired from Union Pacific at the end of 2010 after 22 years at the head of the steam program, then joined Wasatch Railroad Contractors in Cheyenne. There he worked on Jupiter and No. 119 at Golden Spike National Historical Park in Utah, Louisville and Nashville 0-8-0 No. 2132 in Corbin, Kentucky, Southern Railway coach 1200 for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Western Pacific 0-6-0 No. 165 in Portola, California.

Lee lived for decades in Cheyenne. In the cab he was known for his denim overalls, worn gauntlets and black Union Pacific cap, and for close attention to every sound and movement of the engine, keeping a small notebook of observations in his pocket. He was married to Karen, and had a daughter, Jen, a son, Daniel, and a stepdaughter, Stephanie Lamb.

Lee is remembered as one of the central figures of the 1990s resurgence of mainline steam in North America. Under him Union Pacific's heritage program became the best known in the country, and his work on federal steam locomotive standards helped shape the rules under which steam engines still operate. Colleagues and enthusiasts who met him on excursions recalled a friendly, approachable man and a highly professional railroader.