WATCH: Crowd gathers to see largest working steam locomotive chug through Kirkwood

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KIRKWOOD (KMOX) - Big crowds were gathered along the railroad tracks throughout the St. Louis area to wave goodbye as the world’s largest operating steam locomotive left town Monday morning.

Big Boy No. 4014 was on display in downtown St. Louis Sunday and then headed west, through Kirkwood and on its way back to Cheyenne, Wyoming. The video above is from the Union Pacific Railroad crossing at Geyer Road.

Check out some photos of the train stopped in downtown St. Louis over the weekend:

Video by KMOX's Rodger Brand

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Photo credit (Bill Greenblatt - UPI)

The train left St. Louis Monday on its way to Kansas City. It will go through Kirkwood, Pacific, Washington and Jefferson City.

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Photo credit (Bill Greenblatt - UPI)

It arrived in St. Louis on Saturday evening and was on display Sunday at the downtown train station near Poplar and South 16th streets.

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Photo credit (Bill Greenblatt - UPI)

It left Wyoming on Aug. 5 and is traveling through Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.

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Photo credit (Bill Greenblatt - UPI)

It's 130 feet long and 560 tons in weight, the Big Boy locomotives are generally accepted as the largest steam locomotives ever built anywhere, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

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Photo credit (Bill Greenblatt - UPI)

Big crowds have been coming out at each of its hundreds of whistle stops around the country.

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Photo credit (Bill Greenblatt - UPI)

This train was retired in 1961, then underwent a five-year renovation and went on a yearlong tour in 2019 to mark the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad’s completion.