People swarmed the barriers at the rail yard in Portola, California. In the distance, a whistle sounded. Suddenly the lumbering image of the big black locomotive, with the words “Big Boy” written in chalk across the front, came into view.
Cheers erupted from the crowd that lined the track that took the train into the rail yard adjacent to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum.
The next morning, Megan Bazil arrived just before 9 a.m. with her two young sons to see the train before it departed. Bazil and her kids were among thousands who came to see it, and drove all the way from Auburn.
“I have 3 ½- and 1 ½-year-old boys and they love trains,” Bazil said. “I think they like it a lot. They’re pretty impressed by the size, but also overwhelmed with all the things to see.”
Union Pacific Railroad owns and operates Locomotive 4014, better known as the Big Boy.
Ed Dickens, manager of heritage operations for Union Pacific and a locomotive engineer, is the key force in bringing Big Boy back to life. It took him and his team 2 ½ years to restore the locomotive. It had not run since 1959. Three years later, it was moved to a museum in Southern California.
In 2013, Union Pacific bought it back to restore it to its former glory. Dickens and his crew finished the restoration six years later.
“We disassembled the locomotive nearly completely down to the last nut and bolt and we rebuilt it all back up again,” Dickens said. “It’s a fabulous locomotive and something that, on a personal level, I’ve always wanted to do.”
The Big Boys were built in the 1940s for heavy freight trains in Utah and Wyoming. By the late 1950s, they were retired in favor of more modern diesel locomotives. Of the eight still around, this one is the only one still hitting the rails.
On this first of two tours this summer, it made stops in communities big and small — including Winnemucca and Gerlach. Seeing crowds along the tracks is thrilling, Dickens said.
“The story of the Big Boy I think captures people’s imagination,” Dickens said. “They hear about the world’s largest locomotive, but until you see it, is it really impressed on you because you can feel it coming and hear that whistle and it’s unmistakable.”
The Portola museum worked with the railroad to get people to come and see the Big Boy. Greg Elems, museum president and director said he’s never seen crowds like this.
“It’s overwhelming, truthfully. This is the biggest event that I’ve ever been involved with at the museum,” Elems said. “We do our Santa trains in December and we thought that was a big event, so this puts that to shame.”
After leaving Portola, the train made its way to Roseville, where it would then circle back to Nevada.
The train was supposed to make stops in Colfax, Truckee, and Sparks for the public to get an up-close look. But it ran into a problem.
A tree fell on the tracks at Auburn, damaging the engine and delaying the trip by over three hours. Repairs to the engine had to be made on the spot.
But this didn’t deter hundreds of people from waiting along the tracks to catch a glimpse of the locomotive as it rumbled past.
Ricky Hudson set up his camera at Donner Summit to get his shot. Hudson drove all the way from San Jose, following the train across the Sierra to Reno.
“There’s a challenge to chasing them and I think the challenge is kind of fun,” Hudson said. “This hobby lets you explore a lot of areas of the country you wouldn’t normally visit. I’ve been all over the country chasing trains and the tiny little towns are so much fun.”
The train eventually made its way back to Cheyenne, Wyoming where its trip began.
KUNR’s Nick Stewart is a student at the Reynolds School of Journalism.
This story aired on KUNR FM on Wednesday, July 17, 2024.
