UP Big Boy 4014
LA GRANGE, Ill. — Having a Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive pass through the Chicago area doesn’t happen every day (or maybe for the last seven decades).
So it is no surprise hundreds of onlookers turned out at multiple locations to watch “Big Boy” 4014 make its way over the Indiana Harbor Belt Railway from ex-Chicago and North Western rails west of downtown Chicago to former Chicago and Eastern Illinois tracks headed south [see, “UP Big Boy arrives in the Midwest,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 7, 2024].
The sweeping curve where the IHB crosses both East Avenue and 47th Street south of downtown La Grange provided a perfect place to view today’s action.
I saw the 4104 along with a good sized crowd at the parking lot of the defunct K Mart in Steger. The locomotive is magnificent. Thanks to the Union Pacific for preserving this important piece of railroad history.
Saw it yesterday as it passed thru Beecher,awesome,it literally shook the ground.
I saw it in Rochelle on Sunday with 50,000 of my closest friends. All joking aside, it ended up being fun and memorable day despite, or maybe in part because of, the three mile walk to avoid the traffic jam.
I was fortunate enough to catch it passing through Chicago Ridge on the southwest side of the city. Even got a wave from the hogger. It is almost overwhelming to behold.
That would have been Ed Dickens, head of the UP Heritage Program which includes the 4014, the 844, 4-8-4 “Living Legend” which has never been retired, and Passenger Diesels E-9A’s 951 and 949 and E9B 963. 4-6-6-4 Challenger 3985, and 2-10-2 #5511 were donated to Railroading Heritage of Midwest America Museum under the proviso (No pun intended) that they be restored to and kept in operation and that they would forever be depicted to the public as Union Pacific locomotives in action and dress. The Challenger should have never been given away in my opinion but what is done is done and now it is up to RRHMA to make it happen…