Big Boy trip 2023
OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 will travel to Omaha, Neb., for 11 days of display during the NCAA College World Series baseball championship tournament, the railroad announced today.
The locomotive and its train of heritage passenger cars will depart Cheyenne, Wyo., on the “Home Run Express Tour,” bringing it to Omaha for public display June 15-21 and 24-25, then return to Cheyenne, arriving July 3.
The Omaha display will be at Union Pacific’s Home Plate, next to Charles Schwab Field, home of the College World Series. On display days there, the public will have a chance to view the locomotive from noon to 6 p.m.
The Big Boy trip will include the following whistle stops and overnight stays, according to an email to the Union Pacific Steam Club:
— June 7: Albin and LaGrange, Wyo.; overnight in Gering, Neb.
— June 8: Broadwater and Lemoyne, Neb.; overnight in North Platte, Neb.
— June 9: North Platte layover
— June 10: Cozad, Kearney and Grand Island, Neb.
— June 11: Columbus and Fremont, Neb.
— June 15-21, and June 24-24: Public display in Omaha
— June 29: Fremont, Columbus and Grand Island, Neb.
— June 30: Overton and Gothenburg, Neb; overnight in North Platte, Neb.
— July 1: North Platte layover
— July 2: Ogallala and Chappell, Neb; overnight in Sidney, Neb.
— July 3: Kimball, Neb.; and Pine Bluffs, Wyo.; return to Cheyenne, Wyo.
A full schedule is available on the UP Steam website.
This will be the first outing for the Big Boy since last year’s trip to Denver for an excursion benefitting the Union Pacific museum, a trip arranged in place of an originally planned tour of the Pacific Northwest [see “Big Boy West Coast tour off …,” Trains News Wire, July 1, 2022].
California has an exemption for historical equipment.
Big Boy 4014 did The Great Race Across The Southwest in 2019 which was part of the UP 150 Years celebrations.
They did a fund raiser excursion for the Rail Giants Museum up Cajon Pass to Barstow and back as part of that trip.
You can search The Great Race Across The Southwest and the Rail Giants Museum excursion on Google and will pull up a lot of great photos and videos.
Baseball College World Series isn’t held in California but in Omaha where the UP headquarters are at. California would stop them at their border because of its fossil fuel use.
Boooooooo no California wow
Maybe when it is converted to run on solar panels on the roofs of the rolling stock.
Yeah, I was thinking they were owing Rail Giants Museum a funding tour since they graciously gave the Big Boy back to UP for a lesser donation of an SD40-2, #3105 (ex MoPac #6027) a box car and a UP (Ex Rock Island) caboose…
I’m all for it because that would mean a trip through Utah unless they take a scenic route through the Pacific Northwest or south through Texas and Arizona on the Sunset… Either way it would be a win for fans in the some of the places they actually ran regularly (Wyoming and Utah)