Union Pacific’s Big Boy #4004 is on display in Holliday Park, Cheyenne, WY, at 17th and Morrie Avenues
Cheyenne is also home to the Cheyenne Depot Museum housing the Union Pacific Heritage
fleet, including Challenger #3985 and FEF-
Thirty-
I first visited #4004 in March 2008.
I then visited again in September 2008, and my most recent visit was in October 2009.
The front end of a Big Boy is an impressive thing. The smoke box was one of the largest
ever applied to a locomotive, and the entire end is hinged so that it could be opened
in just 30 minutes by one workman. As one of the first series, built in 1941, #4004
originally had finned after coolers fitted to the handrails. These were soon removed
because of problems with condensation and ice in very cold weather, however, and
set behind the pilot front shield. Here, the Buckeye Steel retractable coupler is
folded away in the pilot. This was seldom done while the locomotives were in actual
operation, as the build-
Walschaert valve gear was standard on UP steam locomotives by the time #4004 was built. Note the wire retainer crosshead nut designed by UP to eliminate problems with breaking of cotter pins.
The red handles beneath the firebox in the first photo release the ash pan. Just above that, and slightly to the right, is the foam meter blowdown, which discharged into a spreader box under the cab.
The middle photograph shows the right rear cylinder, steam supply pipe and front Walschaert gear and cylinder.
The last photograph gives a closer view of the front Walschaert gear and cylinder. The black jacket in the centre covers the chain drive to the Nathan lubricator, just out of view on the left.
The centipede tender was fitted with a rigid frame to give necessary support to the massive water and fuel supply. Train control and fire fighting boxes can be seen at the front of the tender on either side. The recessed ladder gave clean lines, but also permitted maximum fuel and water capacity.
Related links:
www.trainweb.org/.../bigboy%20information%20center.htm
www.cheyenne.org/things-
Report a broken link or suggest a new one.
William Kratville’s Big Boy, published by Autoliner in 2004, provides lots of information and some fine photographs of Big Boys in operation (click on the cover to search for this book on Bookfinder.com).
Pentrex have released a DVD showing all 25 Big Boys, as well as a 2 DVD set of footage of Big Boys (click on the covers to search for these DVDs on Bookfinder.com).
The photos on this page are from all three visits.
It is one of 8 surviving Big Boys, 25 of which were built by Alco to a design by
Union Pacific’s Department of Research and Mechanical Standards to handle traffic
on heavy grades, particularly on the Ogden-
#4004 was built in 1941. It is one of 20 “Class 1” Big Boys, #4000-
#4004 made its last run on 31st October 1958 and then went into storage before being officially retired in 1962. The following year, it was donated to the City of Cheyenne, and was moved to Holliday Park on 28th June 1963.
Big Boys proved eminently up to the challenge they were designed to meet, although their arrival on the cusp of increasing dieselisation by the Union Pacific meant they had a relatively short operational life: the last revenue freight hauled by a Big Boy was in July 1959, and most were retired in 1961.
Will a Big Boy ever steam again?
This is a question guides are regularly asked by visitors to sites where Big Boys are on display, and one which quickens the hearts of railroad enthusiasts the world over. Although there have been plans and rumours over the years, the answer remains “unlikely”.
Cost is a major consideration. Most of the surviving Big Boys are on outdoors display,
which means they have been exposed to the elements and would require significant
investment to make them operable. The most recent (1998) proposal to restore Dallas
Age of Steam Museum’s #4018, for example, foundered on the estimated $2.5-
A second major consideration relates to the logistics of operating a 132’ long locomotive weighing 1,208,750 lbs. Few locations on the Union Pacific system have wyes or turntables that could accommodate that length, and many tracks, bridges and switches could not handle the weight. To avoid trackside fires and allow access to ready supplies of fuel, a restored Big Boy would also best be converted to an oil burner, but such a conversion was tried in the 1940s on #4005 without much success.
On the other hand, 121’ 1,073,900 lb Challenger #3985 was restored to steam by the Union Pacific in 1981. It was converted to burn oil in 1990 despite having a firebox much like a Big Boy’s, and it has kept up a regular schedule of excursions, travelling as far as Los Angeles, CA from its base in Cheyenne, WY.
In the end, with enough money, anything is possible...
You can see more Big Boys on this website at the LA County Fair, CA, Kenefick Park, NE, St. Louis Transportation Museum, MO, and National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, WI, pages.
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