"Big Boy No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941. The locomotive was retired in December 1961, having traveled 1,031,205 miles in its 20 years in service. Union Pacific reacquired No. 4014 from the RailGiants Museum in Pomona, California, in 2013, and relocated it back to Cheyenne to begin a multi-year restoration process."
It's 132 feet in length, weighs in at a staggering 1.2 million pounds, and carries 24,000 gallons of water, plus 56,000 pounds of coal in a massive 14 wheel tender behind the engine. In turn, the coal is burned in the cavernous 235" x 96" firebox to generate 300 psi, super-heated steam which powers Big Boy's huge sixty-eight inch diameter driving wheels contained within its 4-8-8-4 articulated (hinged) wheel configuration. At the rail, Big Boy delivers 135,375 lbs of tractive power to pull long trains of freight cars.
"In railroad lore, one steam engine stands above the rest as the ultimate expression of American Industrial art and science. Dormant for decades, it now lives again, restored in all its glory."
That's the tagline from Tom Bentley over at Popular Mechanics. He's written a very good article into the details about the restoration process of this iconic locomotive. Railroading geeks. Go figure.
"Even mild rail enthusiasts know that steam engines were being supplanted by diesel-electrics as early as the 1940s. Blame economics: Instead of a massive single steam engine, diesels could be daisy-chained together and controlled from the lead engine. Steam engines can take hours to build up steam to power the locomotive and required near-continuous servicing, much unlike the “get in and go” diesel.
But Union Pacific never abandoned steam completely. The railroad’s 844 steam operated in revenue capacities until the early ‘60s and has since been employed essentially for excursion trains aimed at railroad aficionados. The 844 is no slouch itself in regards to size, but it’s still a little brother to Big Boy.
The last 40 years have seen a growing movement to acquire and restore industrial-sized steam locomotives—mostly by private groups of enthusiasts. The one question, oft repeated, was “When will someone restore a Big Boy?” The conventional wisdom was, “Never. Too big and complex a project....”
...Restoring something as complex as the boiler and running gear of a supersized vintage locomotive isn’t for the faint of heart. But Union Pacific’s designers, machinists, and engineers had both technical expertise with steam and the serious railfan’s enthusiasm to pursue the work through all the tangled courses it would take.
Ed Dickens, Senior Manager of Steam and Heritage operations at UP, headed a team of nine full-time employees, who worked tirelessly on the locomotive for two and a half years.
Heavily weighted in the decision to restore the 4014 was its boiler. In a mid-restoration video in early 2018, Dickens says, “I wanted the 4014 over all the other Big Boys for this reason: It had less corrosion and it was less worn out. Some of the machines on other locomotives were a little bit better, but on balance the boiler was in the best condition. When you’re talking about a big 300-pound-pressure vessel, you want to have 100 percent of that boiler in the best condition you can make it.”
The Big Boys were significant design and engineering achievements; it’s not hyperbole to say they were an ultimate expression of American art and science. Their service record of pulling huge loads of freight trains across steep grades in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains and the Rockies is stellar. And records, painstakingly kept at UP, were integral to the successful restoration of the engine. Union Pacific not only had detailed operating records and maintenance histories, but they also had the original blueprints, schematics, and design documents of the locomotives."
The restoration was completed in advance of last month's celebration of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah.
From Leigh Mcmanus for Mail on line: "The bells at Independence Hall in Philadelphia rang in celebration as a hundred guns were fired in New York and American flags were hung in cities. The completed railroad shortened cross-county travel from as long as six months in wagons and stagecoaches to about 10 days on the rails and served as a unifying moment for the nation.
Yesterday (May 10, 2019), hordes of people including ancestors of those involved in the making of the railway gathered at Union Station in Utah to get a glimpse of the Big Boy and Living Legends trains.
'It psychologically and symbolically bound the country,' said Brad Westwood, Utah's senior public historian. The telegram (in 1869) that set off the celebrations said: 'The last rail is laid. The last spike is driven. The Pacific railroad is completed. The point of junction is 1,086 miles west of the Missouri River and 690 miles east of Sacramento City.'
The golden spike included an inscription: 'May God continue the unity of our country as this railroad unites the two great oceans of the world.'"
We can only hope.
