Big effort to maintain Big Boy on monitor

SCRANTON — Keeping the world’s largest working steam locomotive, Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, operating isn’t any small feat.

A crew of 12 operates and maintains the 1.2-million-pound, 133-foot-long locomotive that was in-built 1941, sidelined for many years and restored a number of years in the past for exhibition functions, stated Ed Dickens, Union Pacific’s engineer of the 4014.

Another 20 of Union Pacific’s personnel are on an accompanying practice on a cross-country journey to have a good time America’s 250th birthday that introduced them to Steamtown National Historic Site for a “Big Boy Reunion” with the park’s nonoperational Big Boy 4012.

The reunion occasion has already shattered attendance information at Steamtown, with an estimated 30,000 guests on Monday and one other 18,000 on Tuesday. The quantity may hit 60,000 this weekend.

“By Saturday, we’ll be over 60,000. We’re getting a lot of walk-ins. We might even hit 60,000 today,” Steamtown Superintendent Jeremy Komasz stated Friday.

As of Friday morning, 78,000 tickets have been bought for the reunion from Monday, June 15, the opening day, by July 1, when the 4014 is predicted to depart that morning.

“I think we’ll do 85,000 over the 17 days,” Komasz stated.

Dickens, who oversees the Big Boy crew, additionally oversaw the locomotive’s restoration accomplished in 2019 and deliberate the cross-country route for the America250 tour.

Within round 20 years, the steam locomotives have been changed by diesels. Around 1961-62, Union Pacific donated Big Boys to numerous entities, and the 4014 went to an historic group in California.

Union Pacific reacquired the 4014 in 2015 to revive it to operating situation once more.

“There was an opportunity to restore one of these, the world’s largest locomotive, something that many people thought was impossible and would never happen again,” Dickens stated. “For 30-plus years, prior to that, the number one question our crew would receive when we were out in the field like this was, ‘When are you going to restore a Big Boy?’ and the answer was ‘We’re never going to restore Big Boy.’ That changed and here we are.”

It’s restoration was accomplished in 2019 for the a hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the driving of the golden spike in Ogden, Utah, he stated.

The locomotive and what it symbolizes clearly has strongly resonated with the general public as hundreds of thousands of spectators have turned out alongside the cross-country trek to glimpse the rolling piece of American historical past.

“What it represents to the world is what you see around us (at Steamtown). People are just fascinated with the steam locomotive and the Big Boy represents the largest, the biggest, and there was no other locomotive designed to put this power out at the speed that it runs,” Dicken stated. “In the cities where we’ve announced where we’re going to stop, it’s not uncommon to have 10,000 people or more flocking around in a festive rock concert atmosphere, just cheering, holding up signs, little kids holding up little drawings that they’ve made, lots of flag waving and chanting. People are really behind this effort, this locomotive and of course it’s our nation’s 250th birthday and we’re celebrating with this.”

The 4014 has logged about 26,000 miles since being rebuilt.

At the time it was constructed, “For a steam locomotive design, this was a great machine, the result of many many generations of trial and error and study, and Union Pacific was a leader of the pack when it came to studying and an analyzing all the neat things that they needed to do to always make the locomotives better,” Dickens stated. “They were constantly perfecting it, measuring how much water it’s evaporating how much coal it’s burning, how much grease it’s consuming, how long it’s in the shop and what can we do to get it out of the shop and on the rails to earn its keep.”

The 4014 at present principally is similar because it was within the Nineteen Forties. The crew members are cross-trained such that they every can carry out any of the assorted duties, together with engineer, fireman and upkeep.

“Yes, it’s an old locomotive. Yes, it’s old technology, it’s not efficient like our modern locomotives are, but look at the greatness of what this is,” Dickens stated. “Union Pacific took 2.5 years to disassemble it and build this beautiful unique machine you see here, and here it is right next to one of its brothers, the 4012, downtown at the National Historic Site in Scranton, Pennsylvania.”

Dickens likened the locomotive to a water heater in a house, which is a vertical cylinder tank with pipes and a heating component, normally both electrical or gasoline. The steam locomotive equally has stress vessel, however a lot bigger and mounted horizontally with an enormous hearth field on one finish that burns gas to supply steam.

“It’s the same principle,” as a water heater, he stated.

The 4014 was transformed from coal to grease, and it runs on used motor oil, the identical sort of batch oil an asphalt plant makes use of, he stated.

Steam strikes massive, heavy-duty pistons that propel the large driving wheels. The engineer drives the car through a hand throttle.

“It’s all 100% 1940s. It’s all by touch, seat-of-the-pants. It’s a beautiful art to operate and fire this locomotive. There’s a unique skill set that you develop, a lot of nuance,” Dickens stated.

The body is forged as one large, rugged unit and the wheel assemblies are equally massive and heavy-duty.

“These are very specific, they have a unique look to them,” Dickens stated of the Big Boys. “When you’re into the history of steam locomotives, you can see the Union Pacific look, certain little details about them. They were just so darn well designed.”

This was the locomotive know-how America had till 1959, when supplanted by diesels, he stated.

The 4014 takes every week to chill down and the crew will quickly begin doing upkeep.

“We’ll see a flurry of activity. We’ll take things apart, we’re going to get inside of it and do lots of cleaning,” Dickens stated.

They will hearth up the 4014 a couple of days earlier than departure, to get it again as much as operating temperature.