Big Boy Steams Through Park Hill
Fans Turn Out To Check Out The Historic Train On Final Leg Of Goodwill Tour
Story and photos by Reid Neureiter
For the GPHN
The longest steam locomotive ever built, the Union Pacific’s giant “Big Boy,” powered through north Park Hill on Sept. 5 between Monaco Boulevard and Holly Street, on its way to the railyard in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood, where it was on public display for Labor Day.
The engine and its accompanying historic railcars were on the final leg of a 2021 goodwill tour, with visits to Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, before returning to the train’s home base in Cheyenne, Wyo.
Engine No. 4014, was one of 25 Big Boy locomotives built between 1941 and 1944 by the American Locomotive Company, according to the Union Pacific website, UPsteam.com. It is today the world’s largest operational steam locomotive. The engine is 132 feet long — longer than three school buses — and weighs 1.2 million pounds. It is the only model steam engine to ever have the 4-8-8-4 wheel configuration, with four “pilot” wheels up front for stability entering curves, two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel trailing set supporting the large firebox.
Originally intended to haul freight over the Wasatch Range between Wyoming and Utah, the coal-burning leviathans could reach speeds of 80 miles per hour, and were in revenue service until 1959, before being replaced by diesel and gas-turbine electric locomotives.
Of the original 25 Big Boy locomotives, 17 have been scrapped. The eight others are in train or rail museums around the country. (One of those, No. 4005, is on static indoor display at Denver’s Forney Museum of Transportation on Brighton Boulevard.)
In 2013, Union Pacific reacquired Big Boy No. 4014 from the RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, Calif. and began the five-year process of restoring the antique machine to functional operation. Restoration included converting the original coal-burning engine to burn No. 5 fuel oil.
No. 4014 roared back to life in 2019 with a nationwide tour celebrating the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railway.
On the morning of Sept. 5, the Greater Park Hill News traveled 150 miles east to Kit Carson (population 233), to intercept and photograph Big Boy at its first Colorado whistle-stop, and then followed the historic train and its distinctive black smoke plume west across the plains to the next stop in Hugo (population 733), where the enthusiastic welcoming crowd was likely double the town’s population. Numerous rail fans were seen racing the train as it traveled adjacent to US Highway 287 and then Interstate 70 on the way to Denver. Enthusiasts pulled off the highway onto gravel county roads at grade crossings and bridges, vying for the best views as the huge engine powered past.
Two small propeller aircraft circled the Big Boy as it made its way from Hugo to Strasbourg and drone pilots zoomed their flying cameras along the speeding locomotive to get action video. The engine finally arrived in Park Hill along the Union Pacific line at the Holly and 42nd Street intersection at 5:30 p.m. A half-dozen steam train aficionados arrived just minutes before the train, camera-phones in hand, positioning themselves for the best photographs. They were not disappointed.
