Is a Big Boy locomotive a he or a she?

Photo by Paul Guercio.

The staff and I are hard at work on our special magazine, “Big Boy on the road to restoration,” due out in early April. Writing and editing this 100-page tribute to Union Pacific’s largest steam locomotives and the effort to restore Big Boy No. 4014 makes me wonder about a common term we often use when referring to steam locomotives, and the Big Boy in particular. Somewhere between the story about the history of the 4-8-8-4s on Union Pacific between 1941 and 1959, the piece about the 4014’s rescue from the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, and the 18-page guide to all eight surviving 4000s, I began to ponder whether we’re making the correct references to this locomotive.

To put it bluntly, should I be referring to No. 4014 a she or as she? Is the Big Boy really Great Girl? Can such a large, powerful masculine locomotive possess feminine traits?

For as long as steam locomotives have been around (and the same goes for ships, aircraft, and other large objects that move), crews have referred to their charges as female. “She" and “the old girl” are synonymous with a steam locomotive. The reason for these female references, I’ve come to know through explanation and my own relationships with steam locomotives over the years, is a term of endearment, affection for a machine that is as alive as any creation of our world.

But I wonder about UP’s 25 4-8-8-4s, a class of locomotives whose name is squarely male. Is Big Boy still a “she”? Or perhaps he (or she) has attributes of both? Locomotives display their temperaments when they’re in steam, and I guess we’ll find out what No. 4014 feels like in a few years when she – or he – is restored and back on the main line.