ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. — Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 begins the third day of its exhaustive Southwestern tour today with a trip across original Big Boy territory from Rock Springs, Wyo., to Evanston, Wyo. The locomotive and its 10-car consist left Cheyenne Friday.
No. 4014 is first bound for West Colton, Calif., and an excursion to pay back the RailGiants Museum, a project of the Southern California Chapter of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, which provided the locomotive to the UP in 2013. From there, it’s a dash east through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, before looping north through Arkansas to Kansas City and a return home via Kansas and Denver to arrive the day before Thanksgiving. The trip will cover almost 5,000 miles with the locomotive that had not run in 60 years until May.
Along the way, the engine will lay over in El Paso, Texas, for 11 days for a boiler wash and inspection, and likely return home in wintery conditions.
The locomotive is running smoothly with new wrist pin brasses and adjustments to the eccentric rods that have eliminated the clanking sound that many heard on its journeys earlier this year, says Ed Dickens, manager of the UP’s steam program. “It is an amazing machine,” Dickens said. “We’re learning so much from it.”
Among the findings: the engine likes to settle into a 40-mph pace, its boiler provides plenty of steam, and it consumes 25 gallons of fuel and 230 gallons of water per mile.
Trains is following the Big Boy through Oct. 7, with live streaming coverage on Facebook, where conditions allow. Video will also be posted at www.TrainsMag.com.
