The crowd watches as the Big Boy is prepared for more movement on panel tracks. Jim Wrinn photo
POMONA, Calif.- The emotions that Union Pacific’s newly repatriated Big Boy steam locomotive No. 4014 stirs, even without it being restored and in steam, is powerful indeed.
On Thursday, as the UP steam crew pulled the engine out of the Rail Giants museum at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, more than 200 people appeared. Many had heard about the move from our social media and News Wire posts, and many were eager to see this historic event.
A college student drove up from San Diego to see the spectacle. A local man, Evan Ferrari, said he’d seen the engine in the museum as a child and was in disbelief that it was leaving, but most happy that it will be restored to operation. Doug Kearney from Marino Valley brought his Lionel O-gauge model of No. 4014 and posed it on the siderods and pilot for pictures.
Doug Kearney positions his O-gauge Big Boy 4014 on the running gear. Jim Wrinn photo
At Trains, our steaming Web cam of the move (on again this morning until around noon at www.TrainsMag.com/webcam) drew thousands of viewers from across the nation and as far away as U.S. Army bases in Afghanistan.
There is something powerful about a steam locomotive, indeed. Those of us who know this and love them enough to spend as much time as we can riding, photographing, and sometimes even working on and running them have received a unique gift. In a day and age when modern technology allows us to live broadcast the move of one of these magnificent machines, these historic machines are wonderful reminders of the genius of mankind. To restore this one is to salute the craftsman at Alco who built them, the UP employees who ran and maintained them, and the people smart enough to save eight of them before the scrappers torch got them all.
The beauty shot of the 4014 in the sun for the first time in more than 24 years. Jim Wrinn photo
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