The Union Pacific Big Boy #4014 is now moving under its own power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjoMBKWW0ag
https://www.google.com/amp/s/jalopn...engine-in-the-world-going-on-a-1834509725/amp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjoMBKWW0ag
https://www.google.com/amp/s/jalopn...engine-in-the-world-going-on-a-1834509725/amp
Union Pacific 4014, also known as the one of the only 25 Big Boys ever built and only eight still in existence, is now officially the only one running in the world. Earlier we heard it blow its whistle for the first time since 1962, and yesterday evening it went for its first test run under its own power for the first time in 57 years. And weighing in at over a million pounds, it is now officially the largest running steam engine in the world
Each Big Boy wasn’t just designed to be large, weighing as much as 1,200,000 pounds, as an aesthetic thing. They were so big because they were enormously powerful, as Railway Age noted in a story about UP4014 when it was first announced that it would be restored:
Twenty-five Big Boys were built exclusively for Union Pacific by the American Locomotive Company (Alco) between 1941 and 1944, in two groups of ten and one of five. All burned coal, with large, 150-square-foot grates to burn the low-quality Wyoming coal from mines owned by the railroad. They were designed to pull long, heavy freight trains (maximum rated tonnage of 4,040 tons) at a sustained speed of 60 mph once past the Wasatch Range mountain grades on UP’s main line between Ogden, Utah, and Cheyenne. Peak horsepower was reached at about 35 mph; optimal tractive effort at about 10 mph.