Railroad Plans to Restore One of the Largest Steam Locomotives Ever Built

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Capt Worley PE

Capt Worley PE

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Omaha, Neb., July 23, 2013 – Union Pacific Railroad today announced it reached an agreement with the Southern California Chapter - Railway & Locomotive Historical Society in Pomona, Calif., to transfer ownership of one of the world's largest steam locomotives, Big Boy No. 4014, back to Union Pacific.

Union Pacific plans to relocate No. 4014 to Cheyenne, Wyo., where Union Pacific's Heritage Fleet Operations team will work to restore it to operating condition. Details regarding those efforts will be made public at a later date.

Union Pacific donated No. 4014 to the historical society December 7, 1961. The locomotive arrived January 8, 1962, at its current display location at the Rail Giants Train Museum in Pomona.

No other railroad has retained its historical equipment or honored its American roots like Union Pacific.

"Our steam locomotive program is a source of great pride to Union Pacific employees past and present," said Ed Dickens, senior manager - Union Pacific Heritage Operations. "We are very excited about the opportunity to bring history to life by restoring No. 4014."
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http://www.uprr.com/newsinfo/releases/heritage_and_steam/2013/0723_4014.shtml

 
sorry to tangent the topic already, but one of the railway companies closed the crossing this week on the main road through town for repair work. The road is the main artery of traffic to get to the interstate. Glad we live farhter out and have a back way out to the interstate.

at least they gave notice this time. a year ago they closed ALL the crossings in town at the same time for repair without telling anyone. The only crossing open were those on the outskirts.

 
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Cool - my son goes through periodic obsessions with trains, and I got him some DVD on sale once that has color film from the 50s and 60s. The "Big Boys" are prominently featured. These things were true triumphs of mechanical engineering - they pushed an old technology well beyond what was previously thought possible. Who knows, maybe these will come back some day, but fired by natural gas instead of coal or diesel? In some ways that makes some sense, but it would probably be a lot easier and more efficient to power a natural gas locomotive using a turbine. Which just isn't the same...

 
So does coal....

It's a train, you can carry along as much fuel as you like.

 
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I think I have a photo of me and my husband standing in front of the UP Big Boy on display in Scranton.... now that is a cool place to visit if you are into learning about coal and train history.... not too far from 'Steamtown' they actually have a coal mine tour where they lower you down in a cable mine car to a couple hundred feet from the surface and show you around for about an hour, then they take you back up to the surface... I did that tour so many times as a kid i think I could be the guide...

 
Dleg said:
So does coal....

It's a train, you can carry along as much fuel as you like.
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Yeah, but coal (China is still designing and building coal locomotives, BTW) and diesel you can store in nice rectangular cross section cars or tanks, maximizing capacity for the tunnel limited sizing. NG must be stored in cylinders, which wastes space. Also, NG isn't as energy dense as diesel or coal, and has special handling provisions.

I get your point about you can carry all you want, but pannier tanks on the locomotive store the diesel equivalent of several rail cars worth of NG. The RRs would rather have the income from those railcars than fuel.

All this could of course change if NG proves to be stable and low priced. History doesn't show that it is, but who knows what the future brings.

 

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