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UP’s famous Big Boy is making a sweep around middle America, and I was fortunate enough to see it. It was four hours late (ain’t that like a railroad!) due to issues with other trains with higher priorities, but despite the wait, was impressive as could be wished for.<\/p>\n
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First, a few facts: The locomotive ALONE is just over 85 feet long, and with a tender, 132 feet. Call it about half-a-dozen ’60s Pontiac Catalinas end to end.\u00a0 And, at 1,200,000 pounds, the largest class of steam locomotive ever built. That’s 600 tons of rolling stock on 24 wheels (4-8-8-4 for you purists). \u00a0By comparison, an M-1 Abrams tank tips the scales at a svelte 74 tons mas o meno.<\/p>\n
I found a spectacular spot a few miles out of town where I kicked rocks all afternoon as the cars drove by on the road. Visibility up and down the track was close to a mile. A hard core family and a train enthusiast who drive 180 miles to get there stayed the afternoon – several other folks pulled in, but mostly left after an hour or so. (Acknowledgement – a book of Eric Frank Russell short stories sure helped pass the time. That and reordering my glove box and reading my owner’s manual.) Finally trains started coming through – from about 8-10 feet off the track, a highballin’ freight train is seriously impressive.<\/p>\n
Finally! The most unmistakable train whistle in the world (diesels just-don’t-get-it)\u00a0 down the track and the train went chuffing by.\u00a0 The big freights were faster, but the close-up impression of the Big Boy is overwhelming. I once was on a mountain bike sharing a tank trail with a few M-1s near Ft. Bliss and thought I had been impressed then….this blew that away. Size, speed, and proximity made it unforgettable.<\/p>\n
The family had gone for pizza and kindly gave me a couple of slices – their train-freak little boy wanted coins to flatten on the track. They had only a quarter, so I went to my stash and gave him a shiny $1 coin. Heck, I pulled one out for me, too.\u00a0 They came out wafer thin, which was expected – what was NOT expected was that they left images stamped into the steel track! I would have bet cash green money the coin was too soft for that.<\/p>\n
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The crowd downtown, which had been over 10,000 people earlier in the day, had thinned considerably over the hours and I’m thinking there were maybe a thousand or so\u00a0 left. The police were lenient and let people cross the tracks to get better pictures, and generally get a lot closer to the train than I expected.\u00a0 One thing that struck me – UP guys were madly lubricating pretty much every moving bit with oil and grease while they stopped – I asked one of them how frequently they had to do that and he said “About every 60 or 70 miles!” And we thought PMCSing Army vehicles was a pain! When they vented steam from the system (right) it was LOUD – think the crowd REALLY startled loud.<\/p>\n
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Too short a visit… if you are near its route, I recommend making the effort. The link to the schedule is below.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.up.com\/media\/releases\/big-boy-4014-nr-240812.htm<\/p>\n
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