Are there more than one? Or are there trains with the same name....I'm sure I've seen one called Big Boy, but I thought it was in a museum...and it was huge! But I've not seen a train in the area that it will be traveling....

IIRC I have a photo of it, but that was pre-digital.

From Wikipedia, full article here.

"The 25 Big Boy locomotives were built to haul freight over the Wasatch mountains between Ogden, Utah and Green River, Wyoming. In the late 1940s, they were reassigned to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they hauled freight over Sherman Hill to Laramie, Wyoming. They were the only locomotives to use a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement: four-wheel leading truck for stability entering curves, two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox.

Today, eight Big Boys survive, with most on static display at museums across the country. One of them, No. 4014, was re-acquired by Union Pacific and rebuilt to operating condition in 2019, regaining the title as the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world."

So, 25 built, 8 survive, one operational.

Maifleur, I would so love to see, and hear, and smell, the 4014 steaming along the track!

Thanks nickel! I remember now...it was at Steamtown that we saw it.

https://www.nps.gov/stea/planyourvisit/bigboy4012.htm

We saw it at Steamtown also -- digital pics but on DH's camera so I'd have to dig to get them out. Even tall men looked like miniatures standing near it!

maifleur

UP 4014 (BigBoy) was at Kansas City's Union Station in 2019. I went down and saw it then. I remember when it departed Union station one morning when I was at work down town. When they blew it's horn it echoed all over down town.

It looks like it's route will take it across UP's Sedalia subdivision in route from from St Louis to KC on August 31. I think I may try to chase it along that track which runs about 10 miles south of my house through Holden, Kingsville, and Pleasant Hill, MO. The track runs right along highway 58.

I saw it up close and personal. Personal as I touched a wheel a couple of years before in the East Bottoms below where the Wards store used to be. It had been placed there to get it out of most of the publics view overnight. We went to that thrift store that was there. I do not remember why we went down the hill but we did and it really was thrilling even though I received a glare from one of the rail workers. In retrospect I could have had a really bad burn if I had touched the bottom side of the wheel rather than just the side.

It was in Houston a couple of years ago. I posted several pictures here of it. It is indeed big.

Thank you for sharing this!

OH BOO! It will be 6 hours drive from me at it's closest (Southern Illinois) but I sent the link to nephew in Denver so he can take his children to see Big Boy.

I love trains and would love to see it. but I know it wouldn't go to Virginia. My dad worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and i adored riding trains and writing about the ones in the civil war. Have a great time everyone.

I would love to be able to see it, but it won't be close enough to me. There is just something special about the sound of the old steam engine train whistles in the dead of night. Trains nowadays just aren't the same.

Rusty

It arrves in Houston the first day of school.

A couple friends and I drove a few miles south and caught Big Boy as it went through Kingsville, MO last Tuesday. There were a lot of people in town to see it so we drove a few miles further west and stopped at a crossing where there were only a few others set up to watch and take pictures.

The consist was Big Boy followed by 3 tenders, a diesel locomotive (needed for PTC), and then a dozen or so passenger cars. Man that horn was loud from 20 yards away!

We were going to chase it west for about 10 miles where it was going to make a short stop in a town but about 200 other people had the same idea and by the time we could pull out behind the caravan of cars Big Boy was already several miles down the line.

It departed Denver this morning on its way back to Cheyenne where it's housed.

What's PTC?

Positive Train Control which is relatively new in the last few years. Basically it will automatically stop train(s) that have surpassed its track authority and are in danger of a collision.

It was mandated by congress back in 2008 after a UP freight train and a LA metro train collided.

Here is a link to the FRA site if you want to read more.

Positive Train Control

That's interesting, thanks. I've had many experiences with passenger trains in the East Coast northeast corridor but not otherwise in the US and know nothing about them. (I'm better informed and more experienced with trains in Europe)

Are you a train fan or have another connection to railroads?

LoneJack,how cool to see a Big Boy under steam! Interesting about needing the regular diesel to provide the PTC, I never would have thought of that.

And, I hope Maifleur is doing well. I miss her posts.

Elmer - I work in IT for the class 1 railroad headquartered here in KC. I have been involved with the PTC rollout for the last decade. I work on the rail operations side which involves integrating a lot of train consist, crew, locomotive data, etc to the locomotive's on-board systems.

nickel - it was very cool. I've seen another Big Boy (UP 844) before but never under steam. Yes, I was wondering where Maifleur went. I hope she is doing OK.

Thanks lonejack, then that old time train is on the right track for you.

If it interests you, I hope you've had or will have a chance to experience the TGV network in Europe. There's nothing more bracing that to "fly" across that countryside at 175 mph in smooth, quiet comfort. Even the reduced speed through the tunnel under the Channel to/from the UK, which I just checked is at a slower 100mph,is exhilarating.

LOL thinking of my DH -- he majored in Physics and that was his job title, but times being what they were it evolved into the IT field as much as the Physics field. If he'd landed a job where his background melded with trains! Well! I'd never convince him to retire!

Elmer, the TGV sounds like something to strive to experience ... someday when the world gets a little more past pandemics.

It's something and it's not new, the system has been in place for over 30 years. But it's been expanding over the years. My last TGV ride was a few years ago. There are speed displays in all the cars, of course. There were segments on this trip when the train was going nearly 300 kilometers per hour, just under 200 mph. There's no sensation of movement at all, Turns in the track path are intentionally limited and very broad but they're banked in such a way as to be barely discernable to passengers.

cool -- are window seats prized or considered too mundane to bother with? I'd love to look out the window ....

Seeing out the window isn't a problem. The seats are like two on a side as I recall, a widow seat and an aisle. The trains move so fast that you really can't much see what you're passing other than something like a church tower in a small town or something like that.

I suspect it varies with the route and the time of year but they run with good frequency. Seems like they're usually 1/2 to 3/4 full, I think seats are reserved in advance, at least they are in first class. A fun ride. Center city London to center city Paris is a shade over 2 hours. You can't make the trip by plane as fast if you factor in the trips to/from the airports. Those alone can take an hour each, if there's traffic.

So it's not like a plane -- where most people ignore what's outside the window while I have my face plastered against it! But if the train travels so fast you can't focus, well, I'd still enjoy the towers and sights in the distance. Thank you for the info and inspiration, I appreciate it!

I can't say. I will say that if sightseeing along the way interests someone, taking a TGV train isn't the way to go.

Level crossings are very rare in Europe and are non-existent for the fast lines. Bridges and tunnels/underpasses are the rule for either the roads or the rail lines. On some stretches, common rail lines can run in a below grade trench, as I recall for parts of the Acela line here. I don't think that's much true of TGV train lines because of the air pressure of the passing cars needing more space around them but I don't know for sure. The TGV lines I recall are at ground level and roads go either over or below them. When I try to picture the view out a TGV on the Paris to London line (via Calais), I picture passing fields and villages on both sides. It's not particularly scenic because the trains are routed away from where people and their activities are. That's also where land was more available when it was built out. The trains have very few stops so they don't much go through train stations either.

Maybe someone else can comment.