Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 is on Tour

[lee]

If you like old steam engines try to see Big Boy 4014 if it passes close to your area.
Here's the schedule.
https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm

If you want to follow it for the day here's the tracking information.
https://www.up.com/forms/steam-trace.cfm

Right now it's in Houston and will stay there until Wednesday morning.

In 2019 a friend and I followed it the best we could from Dunlap Iowa to Boone Iowa.
Debbie grew up near Dunlap so she told us some good locations to sit and watch it go by and told us where the road followed the tracks so we could drive along with the train.
It's fun if you can drive or ride close to the train to watch and listen.
When it made it's return trip through Iowa I rode up to Ogden Iowa and sat at the Lucky Pig and had a tenderloin while waiting for it to pass behind the restaurant.

Passing through Dow City


East of Dennison


Passing through Ogden




Pulling into Boone


Check out the fuel tank
I thought it had been converted to diesel but when I looked at the site tube the fluid was fairly clear.
One of the crew told me it burned recycled oil.



A couple weeks later when it passed through Ogden again.

 

[lee]

In this picture you can see a modern diesel electric engine.
One of the crew told me it was needed to provide electricity to the passenger cars.

 

[Omega Man]

Nice

I like to think of the Craftsman and Craftsmanship that went into what was most likely hand made, hand fitted, heavy parts.

OM

 

[88bmwjeff]

That would be cool to see, but it's not making out west.

 

[Visian]

Wow, a train without graffiti …. how refreshing!



Great post, Lee!

 

[rick601]

That would be cool to see, but it's not making out west.

Hmmmm...Union Pacific is doing confederate-Atlantic

 

[langoptc]

That has to be the cleanest train I have ever seen.

 

[lee]

That has to be the cleanest train I have ever seen.

I thought the same thing

I bet oil drips like theses are wiped down each night.

 

[boogerman]

Thanks for the info. Looks like it will be in my area on August 30. It’s on my list !

 

[ramble]

Cool Lee that you could pace it and enjoy the sounds and feel of it!

 

[pglaves]

That has to be the cleanest train I have ever seen.

It hasn't been parked at Oakland yet.

 

[Wkoppa]

What a pretty train. It was surprising to me how big the interest is in old steam engines.

When we lived in Owosso, MI we would ride our mountain bikes on a trail along the railroad tracks. They had a local steam engine club that talked Michigan State University into giving them a steam engine. We would look at that monster, laugh, and wonder how they were ever going to git rid of it someday. They got it running and built support to eventually raise 500k to have a required rebuild done. It seemed that much later it became apparent that the number of the engine had some significance, 1225.

They call it The Polar Express.

About 10 years ago they hosted a steam engine festival and over 300,000 people visited the community of 15,000.

Nobody is laughing now.

Wayne Koppa
Grayling, MI
#71,449

 

[lee]

Some one took video on the day my friend and I watched the train, July 15, 2019.

<iframe width="1212" height="682" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tKoQouQDhI8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[riderr1150gsadv]

Love steam engines and have ridden on a few trains and it is awesome how much power these things have. The last run of a Big Boy was in 1962 so this is a great achievement to see it restored and running again.

 

[lee]

The first 6 minutes of the video talks about converting the 4014 to burn oil.

<iframe width="1212" height="682" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Up1UaMVnv4M" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[lee]

More Big Boy information.

<iframe width="1212" height="682" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UtSYzyJOwf0" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[boogerman]

Got to see the Big Boy today in Washington,Mo. That’s some locomotive.

 

[lee]

Got to see the Big Boy today in Washington,Mo. That’s some locomotive.

Any pictures

 

[mtraphagen]

Very cool -- both the story and the photos!

Iowa has a thing with cool, old trains. I saw this somewhere outside of Marengo, Iowa, a dozen years ago... a lot smaller than Big Boy.

 

[lee]

Very cool -- both the story and the photos!

Iowa has a thing with cool, old trains. I saw this somewhere outside of Marengo, Iowa, a dozen years ago... a lot smaller than Big Boy.

View attachment 85082

There's a small rail company between South Amana and Homestead. Iowa Interstate Railroad.
https://iaisrr.com/railroad/history-of-iais/
I didn't realize they had a old steam locomotive. You can see the train yard on the north side of hwy 6.
Think I'll pull in the next time we ride by.