Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Union Pacific "Big Boy" train is making a stop in Western New York as part of America's 250th birthday, and a watch party is set for Tuesday.
Steve Kocsis of the WNY Railway Historical Society is hosting the watch party Tuesday.
"Basically we're going to watch the train go by," said Koscis with WBEN. "We're at the Heritage Discovery Center at 100 Lee Street in Buffalo, and the Northern Norfolk Southern tracks run right by our building and our future site of our railroad museum there. So we're going to set up, we cleared all the brush off along the fence line, so we get a good view of the engine. And it'll be coming into Buffalo on Tuesday, and we expect it to be early afternoon by time it passes us."
The train is expected to arrive in Ripley in Chautauqua County early Tuesday. Koscis says there are plenty of crossings and open views along the lake shore coming up.
"If you're in the neighborhood, I know people are going to be somewhere around Lake Avenue and watch it come by there, but we encourage everybody to stay safely away from the tracks. This is a big machinery, and you're on railroad. You don't want to be on railroad property. You just want to get a place where there's a view of the train, and once it gets into Buffalo, you probably have the best view at Lee Street," Koscis cautioned.
When it goes on display Wednesday, Koscis says you can't just drive up to it.
"You have to go to the Walton Galleria, you park your car, and you take a shuttle bus to get there, because there's no entrance through the facility other than taking the shuttle buses. And they're going to be running those things on a continual basis to make sure everybody can get to see it close up," Koscis said.
He adds you have a lot of places between here and Letchworth State Park on Thursday to view Big Boy in the open area, running before it leaves the region.
The massive locoomtive will make a stop at Bison Yard on Wednesday
The massive locoomtive will make a stop at Bison Yard on Wednesday
