And then there is Big Boy!

There are trains, and there are locomotives, and then there is Big Boy.

More than the sound of ordnance from the gunnery range next door, the sound of trains informs the atmosphere of Slab City.  There is a major rail corridor through this part of the desert, and tracks run at the outskirts of Niland, just about 4 miles from Slab City.  You cross two tracks each time you enter Niland from Slab City (or vice versa), and very often there are trains on those tracks.  This is the Niland Wye, a track configuration that allows trains to back up, change direction, and get out of the way so other trains can pass. 

One day we were on our way back from town when we stopped at the crossing and there were five separate consists stacked up on the main line and on the wye.  One was just two locos hooked together, one was a single engine, a couple were really long strings, and one was a short string with an engine and a few cars.  I wasn’t an intrepid enough photographer to get a shot that showed the whole party.  From the car I grabbed a couple of pictures, but they didn’t really convey the full effect.

 

There's a crossing gate at both tracks, but every time he makes that crossing, Luo pauses and looks carefully both ways.  He says he just can’t not do it.  I do exactly the same thing at that crossing.  Way in the back of my mind there’s always the possibility that not only has the switch malfunctioned, but aliens have killed the crew and the engineer’s dead hand has fallen onto the throttle and shoved it full ahead and a mile-long freight is doing a hundred and will hit the grade crossing just as my car is straddling the tracks.  Because of the angle of the road and the curve of the wye you don’t really have a straight line of sight in both directions, so the hair always goes up on the back of my neck and I crane and peer to make sure I don’t see a headlight barreling toward me before I scuttle over the rails to the other side.  It’s silliness perhaps, but I never want to get into an argument with a train.

With so much traffic passing through, trains can be heard at all hours.  In the coldest, darkest watches of a winter night when the stars are a glittering dome overhead, the rumble of the heavy freights and the mournful voice of their horns calling out at the crossing makes the night seem wilder and lonelier.  In the sweet air of morning when the first pure light of the new day creeps across the land, there are trains.  In the glaring heat of noon, there are trains.  In the slow, drowsy afternoons, when time seems to drift, and at sunset as the first chill of evening is suddenly sharp on the breeze, there are trains.

With a very few exceptions, these are freights.  But sometimes there are excursion trains, sometimes very special ones.  It was Slabbers telling me enthusiastically about UP Steam Locomotive 844 passing through on excursion in late 2011 (which I just missed seeing as I didn’t make my first Slab trip until Christmas of that year) that got me interested in Union Pacific’s steam locos.  I found this video, shot by a full-time Slabber, of 844’s exciting visit.  It started my love affair with 844 and led to my finding out about three classes of big steam locos Union Pacific had in service right at the end of the steam era.  The husky deep whistle of that ponderously chuffing beast still raises the gooseflesh on my arms.

You may remember that while in Cheyenne last summer on The Big Adventure, I stopped at the Cheyenne Depot and museum, talked to a UP employee briefly, and looked longingly at the roundhouse where 844 was dozing.  Again, I just missed seeing her, as she did go out on excursion while I was in the general area, and I could theoretically have caught up with her at a number of stops in Wyoming and Nebraska.  But it would have meant delays that I didn’t think I had time for, so I pushed on with a promise to myself that one day I would come back and spend some quality time with that engine.  But I have put it on my list for future trips (I’m thinking next year), as well as taking the steam shop tour that will allow me to visit not only 844 but her sister 3985 and now, amazingly, the mighty 4014 (read on)!

844 (amazingly kept in continuous service since her delivery in 1944) is a Northern Class loco, a type once used by most large US railroads for both passenger and freight service.  844 pulled a lot of famous passenger trains back in the day, including the Overland Limited. 

The Challenger Class loco was bigger and primarily meant for freight, but also did some passenger duty especially on difficult, mountainous stretches that needed her massive 97,350 lbs. of tractive power.  3985 is Union Pacific’s other resident steam locomotive, a Challenger kept for excursions alongside 844.  Right now she is in the process of having her boiler rebuilt, a huge job that might not be done until 2016.  Until this repair became necessary in 2010, she pulled regular excursion trains and made appearances as the great steam diva she is, rightfully billed as the largest operating steam locomotive in existence.  At 122 feet, she is so long she wouldn’t be able to negotiate track curves without the hinge that allows her to articulate around the bend. 

There is a wonderful video shot by Skip Weythman back in 1999 of 3985 heading back to Cheyenne.  Near the beginning, she accidentally catches on fire, making for a few exciting moments.  But the crew gets the fire out and continues on their way, highballing back to the Cheyenne Depot.

Remember the Chuck Barry song “Johnny B. Goode”? 

He used to carry his guitar in a gunny sack
And sit beneath the trees by the railroad track.
Oh, the engineers used to see him sitting in the shade,
Strumming to the rhythm that the drivers made

In this video you actually can hear the rhythm that the drivers make!  This isn't just some nonsensical line in a song—once upon a time this was the sound of steam locomotion.  In some ways that archaic clanking is a more exciting sound than the puffing exhaust or the iconic whistle.  It’s a thrilling, heart lifting piece of videography that I watched while getting ready for my trip across the plains last summer, and if it doesn’t make you smile, then you probably hate trains.  Seeing that beautiful countryside streaming by made the whole trip suddenly seem more exciting and less scary.  There’s no doubt about it, 3985 was born to run across the plains, and I hope to see her do it again when her new boiler is in place.

But there was an even bigger steam locomotive in UP’s stable once upon a time.  In fact, the biggest steam engine ever built:  the Big Boy.  Based on the Challenger design but expanded to nearly 133 feet long, they were articulated like the Challengers.  There were only twenty-five of them built and they were built exclusively for Union Pacific.  The last were officially decommissioned sometime in 1962 and when their boilers went cold for the last time, it was the end of a magnificent era.  Eight of these engines were given to museums or cities for display, which was certainly better than cutting them up for scrap, the unfortunate fate of the other 17.  They are such behemoths, so seemingly impractical in today’s world, that getting one back into operational condition seemed an impossible dream.  But steam buffs did dream, until the idea became a kind of holy grail of rail fandom.  Various experts, (both real and self-styled), offered lists of reasons why such a thing would be impossible, or at the very least so impractical as to ensure it would never happen.  Others chimed in with counter arguments, saying that it could be done and the UP steam shop had the know-how to do it.  After all, hadn't they gotten 3985 running?

Last year I was poking around idly looking for interesting facts about these huge machines when I stumbled across Internet murmurs that Big Boy 4014 might actually be hauled out of mothballs and made operational again after sitting on display at the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society in Pomona for more than 50 years.  Many people were understandably dubious, filing such rumors away with sightings of Elvis and promises of world peace.  But the people reporting this claimed they had their information from very reliable sources, that UP was committed to making it happen.  Other folks were indignant, suggesting that UP would have to pony up something really good in trade to justify the museum giving up their prize exhibit.  Yet that ignored the fact that most steam buffs, including those at the museum itself, probably felt an operational Big Boy was a greater cause for joy than the possession of a silent and cold one as part of a collection.  It seemed likely that UP wouldn't have to beg too much to get 4014 back, as long as they promised to get her rolling again.

4014 in her glory days  From the Big Boy Information page.

I kept checking to see if anything concrete had actually happened on this front, but like the wheels of big trains, this project would take a while to get up to speed.  Then, just a few days ago, I remembered I hadn't checked for news lately and I found this, recounting the first momentous miles on the road to restoration.  4014 had been moved from her place of slumber in Pomona to the UP yard at West Colton. For the first time in more than fifty years, she had rolled on the rails!  Hundreds of rail fans lined up in the dark to watch the preparations for this big moment, and to cheer as she moved for the first time.  Just getting her ready for this first slow journey took months of preparation and many man hours of work.  Of course she is years away from being able to roll under her own power, but just being able to roll under tow was no small matter.  The machinery of wheels as well as her massive articulation hinge had to be in good enough working order to allow her to even move over the track, she had to be fitted with temporary hoses to take compressed air to her brakes, temporary track had to be built to get her from her resting place to the mainline track, and there were a thousand other details.  This alone took many man hours of labor, so it seems unlikely that Union Pacific isn't serious about this project.

Here is a well done video of part of that big event, including a nice bit of background information.  There are other videos, including this one by an obviously awed and enraptured rail fan.  Toward the end you can hear 4014’s whistle blow.  (It sounds a little anemic—which you can’t really blame her for after a 52-year coma— but I suspect the reason for this is that they must be running compressed air through it taken from the supply for the brakes, since they obviously are not using steam, and perhaps there is not enough volume to allow her whistle to sound with its full voice.  Are there also dynamics of the steam/air mix that the whistle was designed for that are not easily replaced by compressed air?  I say steam/air mix because I assume the high volume steam that would normally jet through that whistle would also pull some air along with it.)

It is almost impossible to overstate how big a deal this is in the world of steam trains.  In fact, this is such big news that it even got Hitler’s attention.  Apparently Hitler and his homies are fans of Norfolk and Western Railroad, which announced plans for the restoration of their steam engine 611 shortly before UP made the official announcement about 4014, spurring speculation that UP’s decision was a way to one-up NW.  I’ve watched a fair number of Hitler downfall parodies, and I have to say this is a fine example of the genre.

And speaking of Hitler, there are stories that German spies sent reports back to the High Command about monster locomotives that could single-handedly haul miles-long strings of heavily laden freight over steep grades.  Nobody believed them, which is probably a good thing or there might have been efforts at sabotage.  Those locomotives were real, UP’s Big Boys and Challengers, and they made a significant contribution to the war effort by moving massive amounts of material quickly over long distances and steep grades.  Whether those stories are true or only myth, 4014 and 3985 and their sisters were perhaps an even more important part of the great American industrial machine that won the war than was the Manhattan Project. 

UP has added 4014 to the portion of its website that deals with its working steam engines.   You can get news about 4014’s progress and even track her position via GPS.  It may be this month that the big move to the steam shop in Cheyenne will happen.  That will be another great event for rail fans to celebrate and no doubt document.  Once she is back home at last, 4014 will join 844 and 3985, and the years of work that it will take to convert her from coal to oil and get her rolling again will begin.  It is a huge undertaking.  Estimates are that it will take about five years for this work to be completed, so we might not see anything before 2019.  That’s a long time for steam buffs to wait, but oh what a day it will be when she takes her first run under her own steam.  To me that sounds like a pretty good reason for a trip to Cheyenne!

Update:  I was still working on this post when I checked and found the news that UP had released the schedule for the 4014’s move to Cheyenne.  The move starts on April 28^th, and that day she’ll be in Victorville, Barstow, and Yermo.  Heat ‘er up, Goose!  We’re goin’ on a road trip! 

As you might imagine, there’s tons of information on teh Interwebs about Big Boy 4014 now.  Here’s a sampling:

A charming and wonderful vintage movie about the Big Boy that was produced by Union Pacific.  It has some fantastic footage and a fabulous retro appeal that makes me feel like I’m back in the third grade watching movies on the cranky old school projector.

UP’s collection of YouTube videos about the project, documenting the progress of moving 4014 and subsequent work to get her ready for the long trip home.

A fantastic set of photos documenting 4014 and her most recent adventures from the fairgrounds where she has slept for fifty years to the Colton yard where she will hang for a while before making the trek to Cheyenne.  There are also some wonderful, atmospheric staged shots with special effects that make her look like she might have back when she was awake and under active steam.  They were taken as part of a fund raiser for the rail museum, and they seem to invoke her return to active duty.  There are 4 pages of high quality photos here.  Go to page 1 and start at the beginning, being sure to open out each shot and read the very informative comments beneath.

Moving 4014 across the parking lot and a press conference afterwards.

High quality footage of the move to the Colton yard with some bonus footage of the crew being posed for a beauty shot and looking hilariously uncomfortable!

The Big Boy Information page, has some great pictures, including that fantastic shot of 4014 under full steam back in her glory days that appears above.

Facebook page for 3985 and 844, (and now 4014).  There is info about 4014 there as well, including news that her move date is supposed to be April 28.  Oh boy.  I’m thinking I might have to go see her.

From the above Facebook page, a scan of Metrolink’s January 25^th track warrant to the engineer of UP 1996, the locomotive that would tow 4014, giving them permission to enter the line and orders as to how they must proceed.  Includes a special and very sweet message to 4014 from the Metrolink dispatch.

Finally, what do you do if you don’t believe you’ll ever get the chance to see or ride in a working Big Boy locomotive?  Why, you go out and build one of your own.  Tom Miller built a perfectly detailed and accurate model of a Big Boy loco and then built a grade to run it on.  It is a 1/8 scale and pulls 40 freight cars with (human) passengers!

And if that isn’t enough for you, check out his Fscale model.  It’s insane.  You could really lose track of where reality ended and the fantasy he has created begins.