To be restored: Union Pacific locomotive 4014 in operation during the 1950s.
Loving it.
The sheer size and mass of these engines is nothing short of astounding. The Big Boys were approximately 1.2 million pounds. There are a lot of YouTube videos on the rebuilding effort for these engines, or I should say the one or two of them where one can even imagine rebuilding them to functioning state. There are zillions of Parts, none of which fit anything else in the known universe. They all have to be custom-made and custom machined. For one who wants to see an engine of this size barreling across the Nebraska Plains you can Google up3985. That is a very slightly smaller engine, known as The Challenger. Also operated by Union Pacific there are some videos of this thing running at 75 and 85 miles per hour over the Nebraska Plains and it is simply awesome.
Bruce Dickinson is going to like that.
I’m nothing close to a train guy, but this locomotive is f-ing GIGANTIC!
(133 feet long, 500 tons)
Choo Choo Ping! :-)
“But in 2013, Union Pacific announced that it was reacquiring a Big Boy in hopes of restoring it for the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. “
Absolutely NO ECONOMIC REASON for a private corporation to do this (very expensive project)...
...which is why this move is so AWESOME!
To put 1,200,000 pounds in perspective.... that’s 8 1/3 Abrams main battle tanks.
Bookmark. I love these big engines.
I’ve chased a lot of steam, 2472, 4449, 844,N&W 611 and the Challenger who’s number escapes me at the moment. This is fun stuff.
Dagny Taggart SpecialI was just up there last month touring their shop. Thank God the CEO likes steam locomotives.
500+ tons!
Big Boy rolling (with help)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gAV31G60oo
Slightly smaller cousin under steam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OgSNQOTw2U
From some of the R/R bridges I've seen ... rusted and seemingly poorly maintained ... the concentrated weight of these behemoths may well tax the infrastructure of many of the R/R lines.
4-8-8-4
Colossal, gargantuan and monstrous. Built for the mountains. Restoring a Big Boy is loyalty to American genius.
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To Read Later
It is not easy to replicate the older technology. These are complicated machines, with thousand of parts, and not all of the knowledge to build them was written down. The same issue happened with the Apollo program. In the 1980s NASA started wondering what it would take to restart building Apollo rockets if they wanted to get back to the moon. After research, the answer was that even though they saved all of the engineering drawings, so much knowledge is just in people’s heads that once the Apollo generation retired, it would be easier to just start over.
Big Boy-16 drivers and 4 cylinders.
The Challenger has 12 drivers and 4 cylinders.
The 844 has 8 drivers and two cylinders.
Problem is...the weight of the big boy, and challenger.
But, take a look at these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgHrDbN4EU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2BoMFZcnDI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV8rA3UE-lc
There is one of these in the Forney Transportation Museum in Denver. If you are ever in Denver, the entire museum is more than worth the price of admission. I work for Forney Industries (the foundation and my company were founded by the same man), and they gave us a dinner there once. It was amazing!