# Big Boy lives!!!!



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

No one else may care but I have been absolutely fascinated with steam since I was a little boy. Union Pacific does a great job of trying to maintain a foot in the past by restoring and sending steam locomotives on cross country trips. UP 844, UP 3985 Challenger and now UP 4014 Big Boy. The steam crew in Cheyenne WY spent over 4 years and countless dollars restoring what is arguably the largest steam locomotive ever built. 1 of 25 Big Boys produced, only one functioning in existence. I literally spent hours one night watching different shots of Big Boys first travels on test runs thru and around Cheyenne. Hope you all get as much of a bang out of it as I do!


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Pretty neat Stack! Amazing when you think about all the design effort in something like this to only build 25 of them.


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Very cool. It's truly amazing what we have been able to design and build. I'd love to hear ol' Big Boy pulling a grade, stretching his legs.


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

On Friday they were advertising on the radio not to stop along I-80 to take pictures as it moved across the state to Ogden Utah for the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad.

https://www.up.com/media/releases/190314-big-boy-schedule.htm


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

paoutdoorsman said:


> Pretty neat Stack! Amazing when you think about all the design effort in something like this to only build 25 of them.


They also had a design change in the middle of production!
Another thing was during the restoration they converted the boiler from coal fired to oil fired!
Judging from the smoke, I'm guessing "bunker oil".


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

You can tell OSHA is involved today. The guys working on it in the beginning are wearing safety harnesses. And they might need to have annual boiler inspections?

Thanks for sharing Stack. 

Larry


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## Shetland Sheepdog (Mar 31, 2011)

Further "digging" leads me to believe that 4014 is burning #5 fuel oil!


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## Farmineer95 (Aug 11, 2014)

I'm with you Stack, I've been watching progress since UP moved 4014 from California to Cheyenne. The plan was to go to Utah, but had to put the on the back burner. Still want to see it run. Hope they fix the packing ASAP on the LF cylinder. 
Boggled my mind that they had to tune the whistle. Figured they could let it rip, not so much. There's a YouTube clip where it goes from a slight moan to a "10 mile pay attention".


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## CowboyRam (Dec 13, 2015)

They have one in Lincoln Park in Cheyenne. Dad talks about back in the late 60's they had a guard guarding it, and you were not supposed to go in it, but when the guard was on one side people would climb up on the other. Now they have a fence around it. Dad also talks about seeing it when it was still running freight back in the 60's before they changed to diesels, in fact he put out a few fires that were started because of it when he worked for Warren Livestock.


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## Ox76 (Oct 22, 2018)

Love hearing the stories - keep em coming!


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## Farmineer95 (Aug 11, 2014)

There is a Midwest trip planned. Check it out. Even have stops in Wisconsin!!


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