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Big Legacy of the Union Pacific Big Boy, The by Reisdorff & Bartels Soft Cover
Big Legacy of the Union Pacific Big Boy, The by James J Reisdorff & Michael M Bartels
Soft Cover
64 pages
Copyright 2006
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 4
Introduction 6
Preface: The Eight That Survive 9
Chapter 1: Last Year, Last Run 15
Chapter 2: Gathering in Cheyenne 18
Chapter 3: Torched in Cheyenne 20
Chapter 4: The Chosen Few22
Chapter 5: Moving Big Boy 28
Chapter 6: Promoting The Big Legend35
Chapter 7: Modeling Big Boy 42
Chapter 8: Live Steam Big Boy 47
Chapter 9: Merchandise 51
Chapter 10: The 4018 Effort 53
Chapter 1 1 : Future Prospects 57
Bibliography: 63
INTRODUCTION
The intention of this work is not to renew the debate among railroad enthusiasts and historians over which steam locomotive once operated by an American railroad company can officially claim the imposing title of "world's largest steam locomotive." It is generally acknowledged that while the Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 "Big Boy" was not the most powerful steam locomotive ever built, it was the heaviest when fully loaded with fuel and water, and that when the length of the locomotive alone is factored in, it is a few feet longer than its closest contender. What Big Boy is generally recognized for was its superiority when it came to a combination of speed, power and agility. Once this type of locomotive was tagged as "Big Boy," both the truth and the legend about it would persevere. Typical of the perception is the comment made by a party reviewing an electric model of a UP 4000 long after the prototype was retired, who noted that Big Boy was "representative of the biggest and baddest in American railroading."
A brief review is in order for the benefit of the uninformed. Union Pacific's 25 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives (with two pairs of guide wheels in front, then four pairs of driving wheels, followed by a similar unit and two pairs of trailing wheels in the rear) were built between 1941 and 1944 by the American Locomotive Co. (a.k.a. Alco) of Schenectady, N.Y. As the only 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives ever built, the type was informally christened "Big Boy" by the media after an Alco employee chalked those words on the front of the first engine completed, No. 4000. Working in cooperation with Alco, the Big Boys were designed by Union Pacific's mechanical department to primarily haul long, heavy freight trains across the Wasatch mountain range between Ogden, Utah, and Green River, Wyo. Twenty of the engines (Nos. 4000-4019) arrived in time to move massive amounts of tonnage during World War Il. Five additional Big Boys (Nos. 4020-4024) were built in 1944 as part of the railroad's wartime power needs.
Only railroad enthusiasts and the media referred to the engines as "Big Boys." Railroaders generally thought of them as "4000s." Either way, their stats were impressive: nearly 133 feet in length from pilot to rear of the tender, and weight of about 600 tons. Tender water capacity was 25,000 gallons, while fuel was 28 tons of coal. Under full steam it consumed 100,000 pounds of water and 22,000 pounds of coal per hour. Big Boys, like other large "articulated" steam locomotives, were widely known for being "hinged" near the center of their frame below the boiler. Here a massive pin connected the two sets of eight driving wheels, each set equipped with its own pair of steam cylinders, which permitted the long-boilered engine to take curves it otherwise could not possibly negotiate.
The 4000s served Union Pacific for about 17 years. However, as diesel-electric locomotive technology proved itself to be more economical than steam, Union Pacific, like other major U.S. railroads, gradually phased out all steam operations.
(Big Boy's creator, Alco, ended steam locomotive production in 1948 and ceased locomotive production entirely in 1969.) As Union Pacific took delivery of more diesels and gas turbine locomotives (another form of motive power once used by UP), steam operations were gradually limited to eastern portions of the system. Operation of the Big Boys was shifted to mainly between Green River and the large UP steam terminal at Cheyenne, Wyo. Here, as the 4000s with their tonnage assaulted the steep grades of Sherman Hill west of Cheyenne, the lasting impression of Big Boy was created. Numerous railroad enthusiasts from both around the United States and the world came to Wyoming to photograph the engines in action. Union Pacific's own promotion of its Big Boys culminated in the twilight years of their operation when the company produced a 23-minute documentary film called "Last of the Giants." First released in 1960, the film proved a huge promotional success for UP in that it appealed to both rail enthusiasts and nonrail audiences alike and was frequently shown at school, church and other public functions for many years.
The 4000s were among the last UP steam locomotives taken out of service. By 1957 and 1958, use of the Big Boys was limited mainly to seasonal traffic rushes occurring in the summer and/or fall. Six Big Boys were last in service during a seasonal traffic "rush" that occurred for 16 days during July 1959. After that, the railroad held the engines in storage until scrapping most of them in the early 1960s. Union Pacific would ultimately and generously donate eight Big Boys for display to various museums or municipalities around the country--nearly one-third of the entire engine class. They are otherwise the largest number of any type of articulated steam locomotive from one railroad to be preserved in America.
Nearly 50 years after the last Big Boys dropped their fires, a huge mystique about them remains in the public consciousness. Steam locomotive historian and author Ron Ziel, in a Rai/fan & Railroad magazine article from December 2003, noted that in visits to more than 50 countries around the world to find remaining pockets of active steam power, railfans or railroaders in those countries all asked him essentially the same question: What was it like to see Big Boy in action on Sherman Hill? Unfortunately, Ziel had to admit to missing the era by about four years. Otherwise, Cheyenne resident, retired Union Pacific employee and railroad author Jim Ehernberger, who did witness and extensively photograph the last years of Big Boys in service, modestly notes that younger railfans "ooh and ahh" at the notion that he got to personally witness the glory hours of Big Boy. It was a life experience that still provides dividends for Jim. Requests for his firsthand knowledge of Big Boy have taken him all the way to Europe to assist with a German public television documentary on the locomotive type.
A number of excellent books, magazine articles and videos (cited in the Bibliography) have all told the operating history of the UP 4000s. However, the design of this work is to pick up where most of these other efforts leave off, and to tell the post-steam era story of Big Boy. It will look at the continuing human fascination for one of the largest machines in American industrial history, at the many facets that preserve the memory of Big Boy, and at the human desire to regain what unfortunately might never be obtainable again.
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