ST. LOUIS (KMOX/AP) — The world’s largest operating steam locomotive will make several whistle-stops and overnight stays in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas and seven other states as part of its new tour.
Big Boy No. 4014 will be on display all day Aug. 29 in downtown St. Louis. It will be on it's way up from New Orleans and headed back to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Before St. Louis, it will be rolling up Missouri through Poplar Bluff and Scott City and crossing the river into Chester, Illinois. Then on its way to Kansas City it will go through Kirkwood, Pacific, Washington and Jefferson City.
See the full online schedule, here. Big crowds have been coming out and each of its more than 90 planned whistle-stops ranging from 15 to 45 minutes. It left Wyoming on Aug. 5 and is traveling through Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. Here's a full route map:
“This is the biggest steam locomotive Union Pacific ever built and it’s the only one in operation today,” Union Pacific Railroad spokesman Mike Jaixen told The American Press.
At more than 130 feet (nearly 40 meters) long — longer than two city buses — and 560 tons (508 metric tonnes) 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.
Of the 25 Big Boys built by American Locomotive Co. in the 1940s to haul freight over mountains between Wyoming and Utah, only eight remain.
This one – No. 4014 – 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.
“The whistle-stops give people an opportunity to briefly see the locomotive, while the crews perform routine maintenance,” Jaixen said.
Jaixen said spectators are welcome to take photos at whistle-stops but must stay at last 25 feet from the tracks. The train is so big that the best photos are from 25 to 50 feet away, he noted.
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