Big Boy 4014 Steam
Locomotive Begins
Heartland Tour on Aug. 28
The Union Pacific Railroad has announced that the Heartland Tour featuring the Big Boy 4014 steam locomotive will be traveling through Missouri in September and October.[1] Many Central Missourians remember viewing Big Boy in Sedalia and Warrensburg on its way to Kansas City on August 31, 2021.
So why the fascination with Big Boy 4014? Many of us remember when steam locomotives came through Windsor, a time when coal fired trains traveled regularly on the Katy and Rock Island tracks. But what makes the Big Boy locomotive steam engine special is that is so BIG!
The Big Boys had the longest engine body of any reciprocating steam locomotive. The engine was 85 feet long and with the firebox totaled 132 feet. Because of its length, the designers hinged the frames of the Big Boy to enable the locomotive to negotiate curves. An automatic coal stoker fueled the fire box as no regular fireman could keep up with the Big Boy’s fuel needs. The engine weighed 762,000 lbs. and with the addition of the firebox totaled 1,250,000 lbs. [1],[2]
The American Locomotive Company manufactured 20 of the Big Boys for Union Pacific in 1941 and another five in 1944, just in time to meet the U.S. rail needs during World War II. Union Pacific used them to pull long, fast freight trains over the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and Sherman Hill between Laramie and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Prior to the introduction of Big Boys, Union Pacific had to add extra engines to get over the steep mountain peaks; but one single Big Boy pulled the big freight loads unassisted. [1],[2]
Other than a Mesabi iron range mining engine, the Big Boy was the heaviest single expansion regular freight steam locomotive ever built. Capable of going 80 mph, the Big Boys usually operated at 60 mph. No other engine came close to matching the Big Boys’ combination of speed, power, and agility. The locomotives acquired the “Big Boy” nickname when an ALCO employed chalked “Big Boy” on the front of the first locomotive. No. 4000, and that nickname continued to be used for that class of locomotive.[2]
The Big Boys were money makers for the Union Pacific from 1941 through 1959. Railroad blogger Patrick Murfin said, “Engine crews admired them for being sure-footed and easy to handle despite the rugged terrain they covered. The Big Boys were well maintained and had years of service ahead when the UP decided to remove them from service only because the railroad wanted to close their Wyoming mines which provided the bituminous soft coal they used for fuel.” The Big Boys were last used in regular freight runs on July 21, 1959 and were officially retired by 1962. The Big Boys were replaced by diesel and gas turbine electric locomotives, but Murfin pointed out that the replacement locomotives “had to be attached at each end of a long train in a push-pull operation to duplicate a single Big Boy!”[3]
Big Boy 4014, manufactured in 1941, was retired in December 1961 after having traveled over a million miles in 20 years. The Union Pacific donated Big Boy 4014 to the Southern California Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in Pomona, California in 1961. In 2013, Union Pacific reacquired Big Boy 4014 from the Southern California Railway & Locomotive Historical Society and brought the locomotive back to the UP Engine Shop in Cheyenne for restoration. The restoration included changing the fuel from coal power to oil power. The UP engine crew completed the restoration in time for No. 4014 to tour in May, 2019 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.[1]
In September 2021, Big Boy was touring the Midwest, traveling across Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City. This writer and hundreds of people viewed Big Boy as it came into the Amtrak Station in Sedalia, taking photos, and watching the crew do mechanical maintenance. Because Big Boy was scheduled to stay in Sedalia additional minutes, many viewers had enough time to leave the Sedalia station and drive west on U.S Hwy 50 to observe Big Boy as it headed to the Knob Noster and Montserrat crossings and then going to Warrensburg. Cars were parked all along U.S. Hwy 50 from Sedalia to Warrensburg waiting to see Big Boy. It was a day to remember![4]
Missourians can see Big Boy 4014 on this year’s Heartland Tour at St. Louis, Ironton, or Poplar Bluff, MO on Sept. 11-13, and then for a final stop in Kansas City on Oct. 15-17. Those preferring to view Big Boy in a smaller town might consider going to Osawatomie, KS (89 mi. from Windsor or 74 mi. from Clinton) where the steam locomotive is scheduled to arrive on Tues., Oct. 15, at the W. Pacific Crossing, at 2:15 p.m., departing for Kansas City at 2:30 p.m. A complete Big Boy Heartland Tour time schedule can be viewed at:
https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm. Viewers can track the hourly movement of Big Boy at: https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/track/index.htm [1]
Sources: [1] “Big Boy No. 4014,” Union Pacific Railroad.
https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/4014/. [2] “Union Pacific Big Boy.” Wikipedia.Org.
[3] Patrick Murfin, “Visiting Big Boy…,” July 30, 2019.
https://patrickmurfin.blogspot.com/2019/07/visiting-big-boya-blast-from-cheyenne.html. [4] “Central Missourians Turn Out to See Big Boy,” WINDSOR REVIEW, Sept. 10, 2021.
