Visiting Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014

Although the Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 was on display at the RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona for years and years, I never went to see it (I’ve never actually been to the museum yet – that’s a future outing!). But with all the press about the 4014 moving to Wyoming so that UP can fix it up and put it back on the rails, I wanted to see the locomotive before it left.

So when the Big Boy was on display at Union Pacific’s Colton yard, we stopped by on our way home one weekend. I knew the Big Boys were big, but you don’t really appreciate the size until you are standing next to one. The enormity of the thing is amazing. The driving wheels alone were almost as tall as I am. I took a picture of the wheels, but without someone standing next to them for comparison it’s not that impressive. I would have taken a picture of my wife next to them but she was waiting in the car with Wesley who fell asleep before we got there. A lot of the pictures I did take weren’t that good as the sun was behind the locomotive.

It’ll be fun to see the Big Boy several years from now when it’s driving under its own power down the tracks. Maybe Wesley will be awake to see that when it happens.