CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Evolving plans for this year’s tour by Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 now call for the locomotive to make what the railroad is calling its “Westward Bound Tour” beginning Sunday, June 30, traveling to Roseville, Calif., and returning to its home base in Cheyenne by the end of July.
At this point, just two sets of dates for public displays are set: July 12-13 in Roseville, and July 20-21 in Ogden, Utah. Other route details will be announced as the tour approaches.
Initial plans had called for the trip to include visits to Portland, Ore., and Boise, Idaho, but the railroad says in its latest update that “we determined that the network capacity on our northern corridor could not accommodate Big Boy No. 4014 along with anticipated demand on a single track.”
The tour will feature a fundraising excursion to benefit the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa; the location for that trip is also yet to be announced, with details and tickets to come at the UP Train Tix website.
The railroad says this is the first of two public tours planned, with a second this fall to visit Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, and other states. Details on that tour are also still to come.
Question for you historians: has anything as big as a Big Boy traversed the Feather River Canyon before? The Western Pacific had articulated locomotives but I’m pretty sure they weren’t as massive as the 4014…
WP had a fleet of 10 2-8-8-2s that were assigned to the Feather River Canyon. While they were smaller than 4014, they weren’t that much smaller. They also had their own Challenger type locomotives, which ran through the canyon every now and then, they were about the same size as UPs. 3985 has also gone through there before, and it’s not far off in size compared to 4014 either. So in short, the answer to your question is yes.