What a wonderful locomotive!

What a wonderful locomotive!

Hopefully...

He doesn't say what fairgrounds. Hopefully they move it to the shops in Cheyenne. If so, chances are good that it'll come to Denver for the shake down run. That's how I saw the Challenger they rebuilt. I'm looking forward to see that Beast under her own steam.

Moved from ...

... the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds (Rail Giants Museum) - also known as Fairplex - in Pomona California. It was moved onto the Los Angeles Metrolink mainline at about 3 am 26 January - hauled by UP 1996 (SP Heritage unit). It stopped a few miles later at the Covina Metrolink station and then transferred onto UP rail with UP 4884 leading as it traveled first toward City of Industry, then eastward to the Bloomington, CA, UP Colton yard, where it arrived at 1:30 pm 26 January.

Arrival picture:

Location of the Trains Webcam:

Significance: First time a Big Boy has been on Class 1 US Rail for fifty years.

Other historic significance

When UP donated #4014 to the Rail Giants museum at the L.A. County Fairgrounds, the last leg was performed by Pacific Electric. The Pacific Electric line ran just past the fairgrounds for the interurban from downtown Los Angeles to San Bernardino. That same line (upgraded significantly over the years) is the L.A. Metrolink line, which provided the rail for movement to the City of Industry where #4014 was then placed on the UP rail today.

Courtesy of UP RR, you can see the current schedule for #4014, including the rail fan opportunities at the UP Colton yard. http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/details.shtml

P.S. Although it is customary to refer to an engine as "she" (the traditional feminine gender), the engines were given the nickname of "Big Boy" (legend of a marking by one of the employees working at ALCo) - hence, it is considered more appropriate to refer to this model as "he" (him, his, et al). Note the white chalk marking on the front of the smoke box:

It is suggested that this marking exists today because Ed Dickens, supervisor for the heritage project, placed this mark himself last fall in memory of the ALCo employee's action during construction.

Thank you, Bill Beverly

I forgot to thank you earlier - nice pictures at the Covina station. Your efforts are appreciated.

Of course it's a "she"

see it run

i want to see the big boy pound the rails under its own steam.  after the up has overhauled it, i will be there to watch 4014 roll!

Here's some video...

Note the diesel loco number.

...jim

Model...

I LOVE the old steam locomotives.  I do wonder when someone will come out with a model of this one in her 21st century configuration, oil bunker and all.  You can be sure that someone will...

Tingly

Oh, that just makes me tingle all over.  Now I regret moving from Ft. Collins, CO to Oregon. 

Well, not really. But it would be very cool to see it under steam.  I always enjoyed watching 844 and 3985.

More about the move (swap)

Some of you may not be aware that the Big Boy was a swap. The Rail Giants Museum has the distinction of being the last home of #4014, but, if I understand it correctly, once it is fully operational, Rail Giants Museum will be one place this Big Boy will most likely visit on excursions.

In addition, Rail Giants Museum gets some other goodies in the deal:

1 UP SD40-2C (UP 3105)

1 Steel bay window caboose, class CA-13-2 (UP 24567)

1 Insulated box car (not a reefer, but near equivalent) (UP 453665)

These can be viewed here (links to copyrighted pics):

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=731810

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1913492

http://freightcars.midatlanticrr.com/index.php/Reporting-Marks-S-Z/UP/UP-453665

These were delivered to the Fairplex parking lot in the wee hours of 26 January, after the Big Boy was well into Covina. UP used the same track that was used to connect the Fairplex to the Metrolink track.

The box car, I assume, will be cleaned up a bit over time by the museum volunteers in that the car has extensive graffiti (by the looks of the last photo).

I wait for the first modeller

I wait for the first modeler, to configure the transfer train as shown in the video. It is a great moment to see this engine back on class I track.

Engine 4884 - engine 4014 - engine 1996- and then a long grain hopper train for the money

scopewime

Empty Hoppers

Heard from a pretty reliable source that those hoppers where empty, so why have so many?  They where concerned with the big boy running away so they strung a bunch of cars on it for braking.  

Just what I heard, no first hand knowledge.

John