Why the Big Boy 4014 is such a badass train

THE STEAM-DRIVEN locomotive might seem like a relic of bygone days. But tell that to the people who cheered and waved as Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 – the largest operational steam locomotive ever – pulled into Ogden, Utah. Its arrival last spring in the US marked the 150-year anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.

Big Boy’s roaring up the ceremonial rails seemed improbable, considering that all eight existing units of the

Big Boy-class steam engines had been decommissioned long ago.

The 4014, built in 1941, went to bed in 1961, and spent the next 52 years resting at RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, California.

At 40.2 m long, the Big Boys’ frames had to be hinged so they could navigate curves. They weighed 544 310 kg, meaning any long-term forward motion necessitated that their 25 400 kg coal capacity and their 90 850-litre water capacity be full to push those massive pistons with steam.

Its girth requires a 4-8-8-4 wheel configuration to keep it rock-steady on the rails. With a puny 5 220 kW, Big Boys had a maximum tractive power of

61 405 kg, all to pull huge loads of freight across steep grades in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains and the Rockies.

Before Big Boys could make a comeback, they first had to go away. As early as the 1940s, steam engines were being supplanted by diesel-electrics. Blame economics: Instead of a massive single steam engine, diesels could be daisychained together and controlled from the lead engine. Steam engines could also take hours to build up power and they required near-continuous servicing.

But Union Pacific never abandoned steam completely.

The railroad’s 844 steam, for example, operated in revenue capacities until the early ’60s and has since been employed essentially for excursion trains.

While the last few years have seen a growing movement to acquire and restore industrial-sized steam locomotives, conventional wisdom deemed the Big Boy too, well, big of an undertaking. As a practical

matter, nobody had the industrial capacity to even consider restoring one – except for Union Pacific, which decided to bring the Big Boy back to life in 2013.

Restoring something as complex as the boiler and running gear of a supersized vintage locomotive isn’t for the faint of heart. Ed Dickens, Senior Manager of Steam and Heritage Operations at UP, headed a team of nine full-time employees, who worked tirelessly on the locomotive for two-and-ahalf years.

Dickens wanted to get his hands on the 4014 because it had less corrosion than the rest of the Big Boys. While some of the machines on the other locomotives might have been in better shape, the

4014’s boiler was in the best condition – essential for a 300-pound-pressure (144 hPa) vessel. The original steam shop in Cheyenne, Wyoming, had been converted to service diesel locomotives, but the 4014’s restoration demanded the reconfiguring of that steam shop. Some original steam-engine tools also had to be reconditioned.

UP farmed out the fabrication of the most-needed parts to select vendors, while hundreds of other parts were fabricated in Cheyenne based on UP’s original Big Boy designs. The crew used modern computer-aided design software (CAD) to achieve spec accuracy for parts as good as or better than the original.

Dickens had his choice of steels and other materials superior to original production, plus the luxury of making modern improvements to piping and other systems. By his estimation, about 60 per cent of the 4014 is made from newly machined parts. And Big Boy’s burn no longer comes from thousands of kilograms of coal. At full steam, a Big

Boy engine would consume the tender’s coal and water supply in two hours. Converting the system to burn fuel oil solved that problem – not to mention this plan was more environmentally conscious.

The biggest restoration problem was the kind of pressure that builds up in a Big Boy boiler: time. ‘We originally planned five years for restoration,’ says Dickens. ‘However, we rebuilt the 844 during that window and completed Big Boy’s restoration in about two-and-a-half years. Even though we weren’t working on the Big Boy the entire time, we used our time wisely to source materials and equipment.

Some of the parts they needed took two years to be delivered.’

Those concerted efforts bore fruit. ‘There’s an enormous sense of pride, not just for me and the Steam crew, but for the entire company. Many, many departments – from Corporate Relations to Supply and Operating – played a part in making the restoration a success,’ says Dickens.

After Big Boy wraps up its comeback tour, it might be used for special excursions, and possibly even to pull freight again. If you feel a rumble and hear that classic steam sound, get to the station.

You won’t want to miss it.

22 DECEMBER 2019