When I was a little boy we lived near the Southern Railway main line where I caught the end of the age of the Iron Horse, those mighty living breathing monsters, the steam locomotive. I would hear the train whistling the crossings for miles and I’d run out the back slamming the screen door and wave. The friendly engineers would wave and give the whistle a toot and I’d run back in the house where Mom would be ironing and listing to Hank Williams on the radio and I’d tell my Mom all about the train. Again and again. In my mind it’s always a sunny summer day, Mom always shouts “Don’t slam the door,” and Hank Williams is still playing on the radio, maybe a train song.
Of course I didn’t know that steam was dying. I was just a little kid. When I was about three the first diesel showed up blaring it’s ugly air horn. It scared me to half to death and I ran for the house crying. After that for awhile sometimes the steam engines would come and sometimes the diesel which I got finally got used to. Then finally my friends the steam engines stopped coming and the diesel drivers didn’t seem interested in blowing the horn for a kid. I’d caught the bug though. I loved trains and especially steam the way other kids love dinosaurs. I still do. Then maybe they are sort of the same category of gone but not forgotten ghosts.
The steam locomotives of my memories were huge but relatively small compared to the real monsters that once roamed the western states, the Union Pacific Big Boy. The largest steam locomotive ever built. The ALCO Locomotive Company said it was too big, too heavy and too complicated. It would never work. They didn’t want to build it. Union Pacific (UP) said build it anyway. We’ll pay you even if it flops but it didn’t flop. For 20 years it was the pinnacle of steam motive power that UP needed.
There were 25 Big Boys built specifically for the Union Pacific Railroad. The Big Boys are actually two steam engines joined together around a common boiler that turns fuel oil and boiling water into live steam at 300 psi generating 6,300 HP. At 132 ft they are so long that they are articulated to bend in the middle rounding curves. #4014 weighs in at a petite 1,200,000 pounds and between 1941 and 1959 she rang up 1,031,205 revenue miles on the odometer. When they ruled the rails the Big Boy fleet burned soft Wyoming coal which was a major customer of UP. The same coal we hope to get rid of producing electricity. During her restoration she was converted to oil.
Big Boy locomotives were built for pure power to pull heavy freight at a steady 60 mph on level ground and were built to be stable to 80. They were occasionally assigned to passenger service but they generally made their living hauling coal, oil, grain and mixed freight.
Big boy #4014 made her final revenue run in 1959, was was officially retired in 1961 and donated to the Southern California chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society where she sat until 2014 when UP made an engine swap deal and called her home. The restoration took 5 years. She was completely disassembled and brought back to in some cases better than original specifications. They don’t sell giant steam engine parts on Amazon yet so all the parts had to be custom machined. As far as I know UP has not released the cost but it is in the millions.
On April 27 the crew backed her out of the garage, fired her to full pressure and blew the original whistle on 300 psi of steam for the first time. After nearly 60 years she took awhile to find her voice. Toward the end she gets it sorted out and sounds like a proper steam engine. The capstone of thousands of hours of effort. Job done.
As of this writing tests runs were successfully finished on May 2 and she’s on the road headed to Echo Utah for the May 8th 150th golden spike anniversary ceremony . The Golden Spike signaled the completion of the transcontinental railroad, America’s first “interstate” project.
Test run. May 2, 2019
Steam up #4014 charges out of Cheyenne yard for the first time since 1959 headed for Echo Utah
Engine, tender, water tank care, two maintenance cars and a trailing diesel for safety purposes. The black UV in the upper picture is a UP photo chase car.
Background, specifications and more videos at Jalopink or you can search YouTube for videos that cover the span of the rebuild.
Number 4014 will join her slightly smaller but still gigantic 912,250 lb stablemate UP 844, fast passenger engine, at Echo.
#844 A fast dual purpose passenger/freight engine is the only steam locomotive that was never retired. She has remained certified for main line service since the day she was she was delivered in 1944. 844 pulled 27 passenger consists to 100 mph, cruising speed 80. She has also been completely restored and also calls the UP Cheyenne Steam Shop home base next door to #4014.
For more information about the UP steam program, the engines and their schedules see UP Heritage Steam. Most of this year’s energy was directed toward finishing 4014 and getting both engines to Echo on time. In the future they seen at train shows and excursions. If you are very lucky one of them may come to your area. Go see a piece of history that really did make America great. Take your kids and grand-kids. Just do it.
You can’t do a train story without a train song...or two.
Do you ride the train? Do you remember steam trains? Take a break from all Trump all the time. Share a story, a picture, a song. Doesn’t have to be steam.
*I’m grateful that so many of you have enjoyed or train ride today. I’ve enjoyed all your comments very much. All aboard and thanks.
** Several people have asked about the schedule. First off UP has announced that 4014 will be touring throughout the UP region this summer. But, they haven’t released the full schedule yet. Here is the Schedule Page for the next couple of weeks. I assume they will fill it out later.
If you love trains and stories please take time to read the wonderful comments. A book could be written from this diary. I’ve read every one, commented on many, and tried to rec, (punch your ticket), for everyone along on the ride.
Trains were our first Interstate Project. They filled out the country and brought it together. Compared to trucks even today's trains are environmentally friendly. Eventually we will have a 0 polluting renewable powered rail system. We have to.
Trains made America great and keep commerce rolling. There is no ‘’Again” in the greatness of our vast nation. We have our issues and we stumble from time to time. I guess all countries do but America is Great and doesn’t need a phony slogan to prove it.