Thank you so much, DoctorZ, for capturing these images of Union Pacific 4014.
F'in A awesome! The technical and logistical effort required that you invested in this is incredible, but I'm sure you had a h3ll of a time. Somebody mentioned 'coal' when 4014 was stoking up, this Big Boy was converted to oil-burning during its' restoration; an earlier UP working oil conversion on #4005 had failed in ~1947.
The Big Boy's [4-8-8-4] 'biggest' size status isn't resolved, yet. The C&O Alleghenys [2-6-6-6] possibly weigh slightly more, and are more powerful. Can't hardly quibble over beasts that each weigh more than a million and a quarter pounds though. Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum has an Allegheny on display.
I'm hoping that the UP 4014's extended system tour gets down to Texas, 'cause I will be there.
I too have been a railfan since a kid in the 1950's, I was lucky enough to actually see a few working steam engines, as diesels were replacing them. My dad was a photographer and taught me film developing and printing by the time I was eight or so, and I took hundreds of railroad pictures.
A school buddy and I spent a lot of time around 'the tracks' and railyards. We were even given inside tours of a few idling diesel engines, F-types, way back then. The railroad 'dicks' even tolerated our scrambling around.
And the town ice house was right there next to the yard, ahhh, the cool [with it 100F+ here every day now, it would be nice to hang out in there again, A/C just isn't the same].
A couple of decades+ ago I was TDY'ed in San Antonio, I had a nice corporate apartment that overlooked Olmos Creek and the short haul railroad that hauled 'rocks' or whatever from quarries north of town into the city [IIRC, now that area is a ballfield]. The creek and edging woods and fields made good exploring for me and my then young kids.
So, one afternoon one of the trains was approaching southbound, we were near a small trestle, so I had the 'bright' idea to go
under the trestle while the heavy train passed a few feet overhead [plenty of standing room]...
We got under there as the train came around a bend up the track.
Ruh-oh, the noise and vibration was simply beyond incredible as that train crossed the little trestle. The girls started out freaking out, then they actually liked it. You can't get a 'ride' like that on any ride at Sea World or Six Flags. Holy carp, watching the underside of a locomotive and cars pass just overhead was beyond awesome. Try it sometime before y'all croak...
Thanks again, don't usually do streaming/utoob, but that vid of UP 4014 was well worth it, DrZ. Well edited too.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_4014https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Heritage_Fleethttps://www.up.com/heritage/steam/4014/https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/schedule/index.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2-6-6-6https://web.archive.org/web/20080127121645/http://www.steamlocomotive.com/allegheny/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Henry_Ford#Greenfield_Villagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_F-unit