Posted on 07/26/2019 4:34:43 PM PDT by Bonemaker
It’s not every day you get to see an antique steam engine from the 1940’s rumbling down the tracks, smoke billowing from the stacks.
Union Pacific’s historic Big Boy steam locomotive No. 4014 is touring the Union Pacific system throughout 2019 to commemorate the transcontinental railroad’s 150th anniversary. It will roll into West Chicago around 2:30 this afternoon and will be on display starting Saturday. It will spend a few days hanging out so we can all take all take a look at this piece of American history.t
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GloBull Warming
Awesome!!!
Saw it in St. Paul last week.
I have some good photos of Norfolk and Western number 611.
Took several of it at Ridgecrest then drove down to Old Fort in time to get some even better ones.
What an engineering marvel!!!
One of the few times having a railroad easement on our property was a bonus: Big Boy rolled right past our back yard.
4-8-8-4
We are headed to Turner Junction in the AM.
My wife saw a gaggle on lawn chairs next to the tracks this afternoon.
Over a million pounds of rolling iron!
Loco weight 762,000 lb
Tender weight 342,200 lb (2/3 load)
I remember in the 40’s steam engines coming by at night and their plaintiff wails. Also remember ships fog horns at night on Lake Michigan. Haunting.
Big Boy,,
They are a Great Burger!
My 77 year old cousin - a real trainophile who went to Russia last summer to ride the Siberia Express or whatever it’s called - is leaving his home in central Pennsylvania this weekend, stopping to see his sister and her family in Cleveland, than going on the Chicago to see this locomotive - he’s really looking forward to the trip......
One of my early memories was in San Diego in 1945. I was standing up in the front seat of our car between my mom and grandma.
We had stopped at a grade crossing at the front of the line of cars and watched a steam engine roar through the crossing with its freight cars in tow. A marvelous, indelible memory.
My grandfather spent a career working for the Santa Fe railway so we got free train trips often. After the war, my father was a brakeman for a while at Santa Fe RR out of Belen, New Mexico.
A few years ago I took my son on a special steam engine passenger trip from Dallas to Austin and back. On the return leg, we upgraded to a private room. Loved it.
They’re called Shoney’s Big Boy in the southeast. Good burgers, yes.
What wonderful memories!
Most passenger cars back then were pre-war and some were much older. I remember one car that had vase-holders mounted between the windows, but apparently the days of keeping flowers in them had passed.
Where’s Dr. Evil?
My Father worked for General Steel back then and they made the cast steel wheels for most of these locomotives. He held some patents on special wheel constructions. Got to see some of his work in Scranton and Denver where they have a lot of these old machines. Fun for mr and my grandchildren.
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