Hot Running History

The Union Pacific (UP) Railroad’s Big Boy 4014 made a full day stop at the Union Pacific yard in North Little Rock on Thursday November 14^th. This was one stop on its 2019 tour celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The 4014 then departed Little Rock on the following morning, continuing with many more stops along a multi-state tour.

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These mechanical behemoths were ordered by Union Pacific and constructed by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York, during the early 1940’s as America geared up for World War II. Of the twenty such locomotives delivered to UP by ALCO, the 4014 is the only one of the handful of remaining Big Boys which has been restored to operational service.  The rest are reposing in various Railroad Museums across the Western United States.

As such, the 4014 represents the pinnacle of UP’s very savvy legacy steam program, and pulls a full complement of pristine period passenger cars. 

It’s an eye popping package.

I photographed the beautifully restored ALCO 4-8-8-4 in the UP yard, as well as from North Orange Street near the 14^th Street bridge, just north of the UP yard, as it departed on Friday.

An estimated 20,000 people visited the locomotive on Thursday. Union Pacific ran continuous, complimentary shuttles to and from nearby Dickey-Stephens Field, as automobile parking was not permitted at the yard, and a continuous and sizeable crowd was present for the entire duration.

It was a real kick for me to see that many Americans of all ages and backgrounds turn out for hot running history.  This widespread (and growing) new appreciation for our past is quite reassuring.

Here’s a crew of Nashville Steam Preservation Society (NSPS) folks who all traveled separately, but soon coalesced into a tight group, as identified by our 576 hats.

The NSPS’s locomotive, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St Louis Railroad’s #576 is a 1942 ALCO Dixie Type J3 Class 4-8-4, and is also well underway for restoration to excursion service, and we all had to see and feel the UP live steam experience.

As you might expect, there was a lot of normal rail traffic through UP’s yard, and they were all tooting “hello” at the Rock Star 4014.

Here, Mr. Ed Dickens (in hat, bandana and blue jeans), the 4014’s engineer and senior manager of UP’s live steam initiative, confers with members on his team who were engaged in routine maintenance as the large articulated Mallet type locomotive takes the day off. 

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Articulation means that the locomotive’s front end section of four pilot wheels and eight drive wheels can turn (steer) into curved sections of track independently from the rigidly aligned second set of eight drivers which remain in place directly under the boiler and frame.

Without this ability for the front wheels to stay lined up with the track, and not the locomotive’s frame, the extremely long locomotive (over eighty-five feet) would derail on curves as it pulls a heavy train.

The Big Boy was not the only large articulated locomotive—a slightly smaller 4-6-6-4 version, known as the Challenger, also had this feature, which was originally designed by the brilliant Swiss engineer, Anatole Mallet.

. . . the 4014 was about 20 minutes or so behind schedule in leaving the yard, but she sure didn’t disappoint . . .

The next morning a small group of folks gathered on Orange Street at the vantage point looking back southward toward the UP Yard and under the soon to be demolished 14^th street wooden overpass bridge.

The temperature was a bit nippy but the sun was shining nicely, and the 4014 was about twenty minutes or so behind schedule in leaving the yard, but she sure didn’t disappoint!

And in only a matter of seconds, the entire consist was past us and gone, and on to many quick stops in smaller towns along its route, with its next overnight in Kansas City, Missouri.

Next time I will definitely plan for a full chase day.   Or maybe two    😉

Kirt Odle – Photographs and text Copyright 2019