A fun day yesterday chasing this metal behemoth of an era gone by as it works its way home to Cheyenne. Union Pacific Railroad rolled out Big Boy 4014 in August for a “Heartland of America Tour” that has seen it cover 10 states since then. On the final leg of its journey, it headed to the Mile High City and I couldn’t pass up a chance to see it again.
After work yesterday I raced out east, barely making it in time to see it before it stopped in Strasburg. While the locomotive took a break in town, I then headed west to catch it again near Watkins.
The Big Boys entered service in 1941 and hauled freight for the next 20 years. Of the original 25 Big Boys, seven are now static displays and only one, this one, No. 4014, is in operating condition. At 133 feet long and weighing 1.2 million pounds, it is the largest, heaviest, and most powerful operational steam locomotive in the world. It is hard to imagine its size until you see one and to have one thunder by, well, it is amazing.
I took a ton of pics but thought for this one I would apply a sepia tone giving it a look similar to the pictures of the day when its wheels first hit the tracks nearly 83 years ago.
