Big Boy No. 4014 spent her last night inside the Rail Giants Museum at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds Wednesday. Today, she begins her trip toward restoration. Jim Wrinn photo
POMONA, Calif. – Steam locomotives, whether running all out at full gait or at rest, command attention. One that is tantalizingly close to going onto the stage, even if the occasion is a trip to the restoration shop, is often a mystery. What is its personality going to be? We’re about to find out.
On Wednesday, while the UP steam crew laid panel track and prepared a way for this locomotive to walk across a parking lot and back to the national rail system, I spent time getting to know this 4-8-8-4. This is the seventh of eight preserved Big Boys that I’ve seen (the 4023 on display in Omaha, Neb., has eluded me thus far), and No. 4014, at home for one last day at the Rail Gaints Museum on the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, is set to win over a lot of hearts.
The UP steam crew has a good sense of humor as evidenced by these spray painted signs, reflecting the engine's past, future, and one-time operational home. Jim Wrinn photo
She’s no rusty hulk. Her boiler barrel is clean, and free of rust or deterioration. The glass in her indicator boards and her marker lamps give an in service look. I have no doubt that when she is restored and running on the main line again one day as a goodwill ambassador for the UP, she will truly dazzle.
No. 4014 may have been the most obscure of the preserved Big Boys – until now. Steamtown’s Big Boy in Scranton, due to its moves to Vermont and Pennsylvania, and the Museum of the American Railroad’s Big Boy in Texas, thanks to its recent move from the Dallas fairgrounds to Frisco, Texas, have sure become well known. But now there’s 4014, a locomotive that will become known to us all as the UP Big Boy.
I look forward to seeing this locomotive take its first, although short, trip toward restoration today, and I invite you to join us if you are a subscriber at www.TrainsMag.com/webcam for a live broadcast of the move.
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