Historic "Big Boy" Steam Locomotive traveling the Mid-West

[ERD50]

This was a side note on the 'repair' thread, I think it deserves it's own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boy

The Union Pacific Big Boy is a type of simple articulated 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive manufactured by the American Locomotive Company between 1941 and 1944 and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in revenue service until 1959.

The 25 Big Boy locomotives were built to haul freight over the Wasatch mountains between Ogden, Utah, and Green River, Wyoming. ...

Eight Big Boys survive today, most on static display at museums across the country. One locomotive was re-acquired by the Union Pacific in 2013 to be restored to operating condition. The locomotive’s restoration was completed in May 2019 and made its first runs since 1959 that same month, allowing it to regain the title as the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world.

https://www.up.com/forms/steam-trace.cfm

https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htm

Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s Completion

Union Pacific’s historic Big Boy steam locomotive No. 4014 is touring the Union Pacific system throughout 2019 to commemorate the transcontinental railroad's 150th anniversary. ...


The Great Race Across the Midwest

The Big Boy No. 4014 is headed back out on the Union Pacific system beginning July 8 for a tour, taking it through Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming. When "On Display," the public is invited to view the locomotive up close and tour the Experience the Union Pacific Rail Car.

https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/4014/


My notes from the 'repair' thread:

I managed to catch the historic "Big Boy" steam engine #4014 going through a suburb of Chicago. Took quite an effort on my part because I left late, and had to keep trying to catch it down the line while trying to follow updates on twitter( #up4014 ) and the UP site (but that's another story, maybe for another post if I feel up to it). I finally caught up about a minute before it entered a crossing where people had gathered, I could see the smoke/steam (it's converted from coal to oil) - no place to park, so I just double parked with flashers on since I would still be within 50' of my car and only a way for a minute or so (train was not stopping).

We will be in south/west 'burbs for a wedding and visiting one of the kids, their spouse and our grand-kid, so we might stop to see it on display in West Chicago on Sunday.​

That thing must have really created the smoke when running with coal!

Some tips if you want to catch it somewhere - I found the twitter feed to be not so helpful. There mutst be a better source on some train site somewhere, but the info I found just said things like "should get to Des Plaines today around XX:XX". What I really needed to know is what intersection I should go to be able to view it. For me, it was just hit/miss and luck and some guestimating from maps to try to spot it. When I found it, I was going through an underpass in Elmhurst, and trying to get near the tracks, and I saw some vehicles with flashing lights on and some people gathered, but didn't know for sure if that's what they were there for. I managed to turn around, as I describe above, had to double park, and would have missed it if I got there just one minute later.

So if you are trying to catch it on the go, try to find specifics on a viewing area, allow plenty of time as the schedule can vary for any number of reasons.

And maybe this should also be another thread, but I don't "get" twitter. I loaded the app just for this. It seemed almost unusable to me for this, comments that I want to follow updates to are buried deep as they are replies to someone else's comment, and it didn't seem to do live updates, I had to refresh, and then dig down? And you need to keep expanding things to see the replies? Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but it just doesn't seem to have the organization and usability that a forum thread does.

Much the same applies to Facebook (which I also don't use much). And YouTube comments - it all seems such a jumble?

-ERD50

 

[Stormy Kromer]

The Big Boy was in Minnesota last week. It came through the town where DS lives, he took an early lunch and got to see it. He took a weekend and drove to Duluth and saw it again last Saturday. He said it was incredible and got to get much closer to it than he thought he would be able to. He said the noise was bone chilling, quite an experience.

 

[Ronstar]

I think I'm going to try to catch it in Rochelle on Tuesday. Then leave before Big Boy does and head west to where I can get photos/video of it on the move.

Probably better for me to see it in Rochelle rather than West Chicago. Less people.

I saw #4023 in Omaha a few years ago - its a static display. Awesome - these things are huge.

 

[pjm-7]

The Big Boy in Cheyenne is in a city park. For some useless trivia it is where Ali McGraw married Steve McQueen in 1973.

 

[Marita40]

He rolled into St. Paul to great fanfare a few day's ago. Big guy indeed.
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/video/4126678-big-boy-steam-locomotive-rolls-into-minn/

 

[Ronstar]

I tracked it down today in Malta and Rochelle, Illinois. That machine is amazing. A fun road trip.

https://youtu.be/MPl5_8sScZQ

 

[CoolRich59]

I was in Rochelle today too with the DW and two of my grandchildren.

It was a blast. I was amazed at how many people were there!

 

[Ronstar]

^ It was crazy. I went to Malta first. The short drive from Malta to Rochelle took me about 45 minutes. More traffic than those towns could handle.

 

[Souschef]

In October, there is going to be an excursion out in CA with Big Boy. I have already signed up for notification

 

[ERD50]

I tracked it down today in Malta and Rochelle, Illinois. That machine is amazing. A fun road trip.

https://youtu.be/MPl5_8sScZQ

Great video - you caught that steam change at ~ 1:22 - I wonder what goes on there?

Why does it look so fish-eye, going around a curve look right after that point? It didn't appear that way just before?

-ERD50

 

[CoolRich59]

^ It was crazy. I went to Malta first. The short drive from Malta to Rochelle took me about 45 minutes. More traffic than those towns could handle.

You're right. I was using the GPS on my phone for directions to the park, but once I got to Rochelle my phone stopped working. It finally dawned on me that the local cell sites were saturated with all the visitors.

 

[Ronstar]

I can’t explain why there is fish eye at that one point and not at others. Weird. I used my new GoPro hero7. My previous gopro had fish eye a lot, and I would edit the fish eye out in the gopro software. But now I just use iMovie, and I just use raw footage with no edits. I need to look into this.

 

[ERD50]

I can’t explain why there is fish eye at that one point and not at others. Weird. I used my new GoPro hero7. My previous gopro had fish eye a lot, and I would edit the fish eye out in the gopro software. But now I just use iMovie, and I just use raw footage with no edits. I need to look into this.

It looked pretty cool, like that articulated train was taking a 15' radius curve!

You're right. I was using the GPS on my phone for directions to the park, but once I got to Rochelle my phone stopped working. It finally dawned on me that the local cell sites were saturated with all the visitors.

That's one of the reasons I keep a map app that can run off-line (like the old GPS devices).

Google Maps now does it pretty well, you need to go in and define the areas you want to keep on your phone, and it will automatically update them once a month after that (I have ours set to only update on wi-fi). That is mostly to keep their ads up to date, but it works.

I also use the app "Here-WeGo".

They both will give you turn-by-turn directions while off-line. Sometimes, it's best to get it set while you have wifi though, at least the locations you want to go to. It can do a more detailed search while on-line.

-ERD50