My friend Charlie just called from Chicago. He had gone to West Chicago this morning to see Union Pacific's # 4014 Big Boy, last running one of 25 built in 1941. It is touring the Midwest having been refurbished in Union Pacific's shops I believe in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It weighs 1,200,000 lbs., is 135 feet long. I found several short videos describing the refurbish process, and it's passing through Lombard, Illinois, where my gradsparents lived during their last years of life. Big Boys burned oil, instead of coal. They operated only in Utah and western Wyoming, their huge weight making them unsuitable for the strength of rails in many areas. Their job was to pull heavy freight over the Wasatch Mountains, east of Salt Lake City. I have never before heard of one coming to the Midwest. In this final one, look at how close those folks are to the tracks! I can attest to the fact that as a youth spending much time by the tracks in our time, the ground shook when one of these huge locomotives rolled by! Today's technology allows folks to easily make videos as well as photos of history being made. When I was a kid, as Steam was being phased out, it happened with little hoopla. Everywhere a running steam locomotive can be seen today, even non-running display engines, large groups of people show deep interest. This is gratifying to me.......Frank
@Frank Sanoica along with ships, I have always loved trains. My uncle (one of my guardians) worked for the PRR and we came to know the engineers on the switch engines as boys (my brother and myself). We would go down to the tracks and stick out our thumbs as the switch engine approached empty, and most times the engineers would stop and give us a ride back to the station. I never sqaw one of those monsters, though. I have however ridden over Union Pacific tracks on several occasions.