OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific plans to send Big Boy No. 4014 on a transcontinental trip next year as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
“I want to run Big Boy across the country,” CEO Jim Vena told Trains on Thursday.
Vena says that he’s had discussions with Norfolk Southern CEO Mark George about hosting what would be the Big Boy’s first trip in the East since the 4-8-8-4 rolled out of the Alco plant in Schenectady, N.Y., in 1941.
UP is working through the details of operating the 1.2-million pound locomotive off of home rails, including timing of the trip and whether the 4014 would head west from its Cheyenne, Wyo., base to Oakland, Calif., first or steam east.
Either way, the goal would be to run the Big Boy from coast to coast.
“It is a little complicated,” Vena says. “But I think it would be a great, great historical movement for America’s 250th birthday … to move that steam engine, the biggest operating steam engine in the world, across the country. I think it’d be real cool.”
UP retired No. 4014 on Dec. 7, 1961, and donated the locomotive to the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, which put the Big Boy on display at the Rail Giants Train Museum in Pomona, Calif. UP reacquired No. 4014 in 2013. It was moved to the UP Steam Shop in Cheyenne, where it was restored to operating condition. The Big Boy returned to service in 2019 in time for the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad.
In celebration of the U.S. bicentennial in 1976, Ross Rowland assembled the American Freedom Train, which barnstormed across the country behind steam from April 1, 1975 through 1976. The 26-car train was hauled by three different steam locomotives as it visited all 48 contiguous states: Former Reading 4-8-4 No. 2101, former Southern Pacific 4-8-4 No. 4449, and former Texas & Pacific 2-10-4 No. 610.
Totally Agree with all. I seen it in Lake Elmo, MN., and Baldwin, WI., on the same day on the UP Altoona sub. It is quite a site.
Living in Colorado, I can only tell people who have never seen it run, get out and see it when it comes to your area. Have seen it several times and it is unforgetable.
Fantastic! Born and raised with the 4014 in Cheyenne,
This would be a GREAT treat for those of us in the East who have never seen an operating Big Boy. Though I have seen the static one on display at Steamtown in Scranton, PA, seeing the 4014 running would be great!