TRUCKEE, Calif. – Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, is stopping in Truckee for a whistle stop on Sunday July 14 at 3 p.m. Big Boy will be stopped blocking the railroad crossing on downtown Truckee’s Bridge Street. The public is welcomed to come to this free event presented as a goodwill tour by the Union Pacific Railroad.

Perhaps the ultimate in steam locomotives, the 133-foot long Big Boys saw service hauling freight across the highlands between Cheyenne, Wyoming and Ogden, Utah without help from other locomotives. Accordingly, the original name for this locomotive type was allegedly to be Wasatchdue to the Wasatch mountain range outside Ogden. Apparently an unknown worker at ALCO, Big Boy’s manufacturer, chalked “Big Boy” on the first locomotive and the name stuck.

Big Boys were only produced for the Union Pacific Railroad. Twenty-five such engines were built between 1941 and 1944, numbered 4000 to 4024. Eight of these locomotives survive with seven on static public display at various sites in the United States. No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in 1941 and continued to operate for 20 years. It underwent restoration between 2016 and 2019, and completed its first post-restoration test run on May 2, 2019. This is the engine coming to Truckee this month.

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To get an idea of how long this 133-foot locomotive is, think of it as being 8 sixteen-foot Subaru Outbacks lined up end-to-end. Gather up eight of your neighbor’s Subarus and park them together and this will almost be the length of the Big Boy.

As much as the Big Boy is long, it is also heavy, weighing in at 1,200,000 pounds. Using the Subaru Outback analogy at 3800 pounds per car, 55% of a football field would need to be packed door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper with Outbacks to equal the weight of the Big Boy. Having all this weight on one spot on the rails may explain why Union Pacific has been performing so much rail maintenance this summer around Truckee.

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In contrast to today’s sleek locomotives, the Big Boys are almost living breathing machines. While originally designed to burn coal due to the Union Pacific’s coal field holdings, the 4014 has been converted to burn oil. Moving 6000 tons of locomotive and 3600 tons of cargo (almost six miles of Outbacks) does not come cheap. To move the cargo and itself, Big Boy uses 20-25 gallons of recycled motor oil for fuel and 200 gallons of water for steam per mile.

As the Union Pacific stopped operating steam locomotives in the early 1960’s, most of the water tanks were razed over the years. To cross the long sections of sparsely populated dry western lands, Big Boy has not one but two water tenders. Even so, the 4014 has been known to have its water refilled by fire departments in some of the towns it visits.

Big Boy is expected to pull into Truckee around 3:00 PM, show itself off and allow you to take pictures of your family up against its almost six-foot drivers. The Truckee Railroad Museum and the Museum of Truckee History will both be open at the train depot. As a special treat the new Truckee Model Train Exhibit will be on display at the ‘Flying A’ office next to the Railroad Museum. Please join us for the fun festivities but come early as parking may be an issue.

About the Author:
Tom Moore is a volunteer with the Truckee Donner Railroad Society and is looking forward to his first opportunity to see, hear, and feel the world’s largest operating steam locomotive.