November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific 2581 passes UP Steam Locomotive 4014 Big Boy, as it sits in the siding at Prescott, Arkansas, as it waits for the northbound mixed freight to pass, so the Big Boy can start it’s trip north on the Little Rock Subdivision.
November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific’s 4014 Big Boy Locomotive approaches the Cantrell Road overpass as it departs Union Station at Little Rock, Arkansas northbound on the Little Rock Subdivision on a cold, crisp fall afternoon.
November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific’s Race Across the Southwest was on the move again as UP 4014 Big Boy heads through the countryside just north of Prescott, Arkansas on its way north on UP’s Little Rock Subdivision on a beautiful and cold fall morning. As you can tell the cold weather went a long way in producing beautiful plumes of steam!!
Did You Know: As if the 4000s weren’t big enough, the Union Pacific actually contemplated ordering five additional 4-8-8-4s that would be even larger. As World War II dragged on, the U.P. needed additional power on its line to Los Angeles through southwest Utah.
According to an article by historian and artist Gil Bennett (Classic Trains, Spring 2019), plans were on the drawing board to build #4025-4029. This third class of Big Boys was to measure 139 feet, 11 5/8 inches long and weighs just under 1.3 million pounds. All would be oil fired, instead of coal. The locomotive, itself, would be a foot longer than existing Big Boys. The tender was to be extended to just over 54 feet long in order to accommodate a 33,000 gal. water tank.
By comparison, #4014 and it’s tender is 132 feet, 9 7/8 inches long. Its water tank holds 24,000 gals. When the war ended in September 1945, at least a year, if not two, ahead of some predictions, the need for extra steam powered locomotives became a moot point.
The bigger Big Boy idea was dropped and the Union Pacific, like most other major railroads, concentrated on shifting to diesel power.
November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific 4014 Big Boy heads across the Ouachita River at Arkadelphia, Arkansas as it races north on the Little Rock Subdivision with it’s passenger train on UP’s Race Across the Southwest event.
Did you know: Union Pacific placed two orders for Big Boys. In 1941, they ordered 20. In 1944, five more were constructed. Their territory was basically the 435 miles between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden, Utah. As a class, Big Boys ran until 1959, with some coming out of service earlier. Additionally, from 1941 to 1948, Big Boys only worked the 163 miles from Ogden to Green River, Wyoming.
From 1948 to 1959, they did not travel west of Green River. In their final years, the Big Boys only worked the 58 miles between Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming. Every one of the first 20 Big Boys tallied over one million miles of service. The last five had all traveled over 800,000 miles when they were retired. All this on a piece of railroad just over 400 miles long. For the record, #4017 traveled 1,052,072 miles during its life.
November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific’s Race Across the Southwest was on the move again as UP 4014 Big Boy departs Prescott, Arkansas on its way north on the UP Little Rock Subdivision on a beautiful and cold fall morning. As you can tell the cold weather went a long way in producing beautiful plumes of steam!!
Did you know: The Big Boy and its tender is only 100 feet shorter than a Boeing 747! It takes a sedan, a school bus, and a diesel engine to match the length of the Big Boy and its tender. With a height of 16 feet 4 inches, and a length of 132 feet, it falls short of the 232 foot Boeing 747 only by 100 feet!
November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific 4014 “Big Boy” locomotive leads it’s train northbound on the Little Rock Subdivision at Perla, Arkansas, during Union Pacific’s Great Race Across the Southwest tour with the restored engine.
Interesting Fact: The entire Big Boy Fleet #4000-4024 would have cost over 100 million dollars to build today!
UP ordered 20 class 4000 engines in 1941 and then 5 more in 1944 at $265,174 per engine. Adjusted for inflation this totaled a whopping $107,620,056.25, each engine individually running $4,304,802.25!
November 13, 2019 – Union Pacific 4014 passes a northbound BNSF tank Train as it heads back through the Locust Street Yard after turning its train on the Van Buren Wye at Little Rock, Arkansas. They turned the train for its display Thursday in Little Rock and Friday morning it will continue its move as it heads for its next overnight stop in Van Buren, Arkansas.
Union Pacific has billed this move as The Great Race Across the Southwest as the train is making a circle around the southwest over a six week or so period hitting Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
November 13, 2019 – What a day!! I chased Union Pacific’s 4014 “Big Boy” from Prescott to Little Rock, Arkansas and couldn’t have asked for better weather! The cold really made the steam and smoke pop! Here we see 4014 as it departs Prescott early in the morning, after a slight delay to let two trains pass it. There’s just something about a steam locomotive when it pokes its nose out of a cloud of steam!
November 13,2019 – UP 4014 waits in the siding at Arkadelphia, Arkansas for a northbound train to pass.
November 12, 2019 – Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 sits tied down at the Prescott, Arkansas depot, after its run for the day up the Little Rock Subdivision. Tomorrow morning it’ll depart at 9am CST for Little Rock where it’ll be on display till Friday morning before continuing it’s move back to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
According to Wikipedia: The Missouri Pacific Depot of Prescott, Arkansas is located at 300 West 1st Street North. It is a 1-1/2 story red brick building, with a breezeway dividing it into two sections. One section continues to be reserved for railroad storage, while the other, the former passenger ticketing and waiting area, has been adapted for use by the local chamber of commerce and as a local history museum. It was built in 1911-12 by the Prescott and Northwestern Railroad, which interconnected with the Missouri-Pacific Railroad at Prescott. The line had passenger service until 1945.
The building is now known as the Nevada County Depot and Museum. Exhibits include area settlers, railroads, and military items from World War I, World War II, the American Legion, National Guard of the United States, 1941 U.S. Army maneuvers in Prescott.
The depot building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
November 12, 2019 – Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” 4014 puts out a huge plume of steam in the cold November air as it departs Hope, Arkansas and heads north on the UP Little Rock Subdivision on its way to Prescott, AR where it will tie down for the night. I’m doing my first chase on the “Big Boy” today and tomorrow as it heads for Little Rock, AR.
According to Wikipedia: 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. In the late 1940s, they were reassigned to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they hauled freight over Sherman Hill to Laramie, Wyoming. They were the only locomotives to use a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement: four-wheel leading truck for stability entering curves, two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox.
Eight Big Boys survive, most on static display at museums across the country. This one, No. 4014, was re-acquired by Union Pacific and restored to operating condition in 2019, regaining the title as the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world.