Huge "Big Boy" Steam Locomotive Coming Back to Life

[Stuart G]

http://news.yahoo.com/huge-big-boy-steam-locomotive-coming-back-life-073258235.html

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — In its prime, a massive steam locomotive known as Big Boy No. 4014 was a moving eruption of smoke and vapor, a 6,300-horsepower brute dragging heavy freight trains over the mountains of Wyoming and Utah.


It's been silent for half a century, pushed aside by more efficient diesels, but now it's coming back to life. The Union Pacific Railroad is embarking on a yearslong restoration project that will put No. 4014 back to work pulling special excursion trains.

"It's sort of like going and finding the Titanic or something that's just very elusive, nothing that we ever thought would happen," said Jim Wrinn, editor of Trains, a magazine that covers the railroad industry.

"Something that's so large and powerful and magnificent, we didn't think any of them would ever come back," he said.
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No one who knows about steam locomotives could have believed that one of these huge "Big Boys" would ever run again. An amazing project.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Wow! An articulated 4-8-8-4 locomotive with 6,200 Horsies! The Magistrate would love this!

The driving wheels, at 68", are as tall as most of us.

http://www.railgiants.org/union-pacific-big-boy.htm

[Stuart G]

2. That's It..

[Brother Buzz]

3. In my perfect world Southern Pacific 4294 would get rebuilt, too....

and both behemoths would be at the same railfest, and both fired up at the same time.......and I would be in attendance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Pacific_4294

[warrprayer]

4. Absolutely beautiful!

Would be nice to see rail and other mass transportation come back in the U.S..

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. Ummmm...you should see the yard it is currently located;

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Colton,+CA&hl=en&ll=34.065325,-117.379593&spn=0.007937,0.016512&sll=30.34499,-81.683107&sspn=1.058328,2.113495&oq=colton&t=h&hnear=Colton,+San+Bernardino+County,+California&z=17

FWIW, the Big Boys were never designed for passenger service and were never used for it.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. The process they undertook to get it from its display position .....

onto the Metroliner tracks and then to Colton is pretty interesting. I posted a thread back in December about it reaching the fence of the Pomona Fairplex;


http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024121971

[Stuart G]

7. Thank You..very much..The Yahoo article is first I have seen of this rehabilitation

In North Dakota.
.I think ...there is a Big Boy...in a park.(about mile from a Union Pacific yard)..don't remember the name of the city..

I was there 4 years ago, and got my picture next to it, and in the engineer's seat..

I would post it here, but don't know how.............correction....Omaha Neb..

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. In that thread I posted a list of the surviving examples;

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4122275

The other 7 Big Boys are located;

4004: Holliday Park, Cheyenne, Wyoming 41°08?12.30?N 104°47?59.4?W
4005: Forney Transportation Museum, Denver, Colorado 39°46?37.38?N 104°58?13.8?W
4006: Museum of Transportation, St. Louis, Missouri 38°34?19.73?N 090°27?40.0?W
4012: Steamtown National Historic Site, Scranton, Pennsylvania 41°24?26.96?N 075°40?10.8?W – Built in November, 1941, Union Pacific retired 4012 in 1962. 4012 was on display at Steamtown, USA in Bellows Falls, Vermont until 1984 when it was moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania 4012 is stored outdoors since the Steamtown turntable and roundhouse are inadequate for 4012's size. The Steamtown SHS recommended that due to its good condition, No. 4012 could be feasibly restored to working order but only after determining if surrounding "track, switches, culverts, trestles, bridges, wyes, turntables, and other facilities that would have to carry her bear her great weight".
4017: National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin 44°29?02.70?N 088°02?55.1?W
4018: Museum of the American Railroad, Frisco, Texas 33.144513°N 96.833444°W
4023: Kenefick Park, Omaha, Nebraska 41°13?55.7?N 095°55?4.1?W

The above is from the Wikipedia entry on the machine, hence the coordinates.

[Auggie]

8. I love steam locomotives, but isn't the carbon footprint over-the-top, especially now?

[mnhtnbb]

10. Very cool!