Yes

A beautiful machine it is. This was at Friesland, Wi. on 7/25/2019.

Tom

Friesland, WI

What a magnificent machine! There were more than 100 Amish people in attendance. I didn't see even one with a camera or cell phone.

Hans

I wish I had known you were there, would love to have met up. Police officer told me over 4000+ were there at 10. Said it was well publicized in the area. I spoke with many nice folks. Most of them in awe of the hugeness of the Big Boy.

Keegan, if you have some crowd pictures would love to see those also.

Tom

Historical Week in Wisconsin

In addition to the Big Boy, there are vintage planes at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, and nine tall ships from around the world in Green Bay.

Here’s the rest of the photos I got

And here’s 2 videos

Pulling in: 

And one of the crowds: 

revitalize interest in the hobby

I wonder what this locomotives trip across the country might do for renewed interest in the hobby,..certainly seems to be generated lots of viewing interest?  Wonder if train shows in near future will feel the impact?

I hope they come on down to Phoenix!!

I remember when they brought the 844 down back in 2012 Loved seeing that. would love to see a Big boy in operation .. i have only seen the static displays of them at the B&O museum 

Nice

Keegan, nice pictures and could you have gotten any closer?  Glad you were on the correct side of that yellow line.

Brian, IMO I don’t think the Big Boy tour will help the hobby of Model Railroading. Good publicity for UP though. The many folks I talked to in Friesland just wanted to see a steam engine. Many had no idea it was UP. There was lots of folks, young and old.

Tom

Big Boy east bound east of Grand Marsh, WI

Frame capture from my video of U.P. 4014 rolling east of Grand Marsh after departing an overnight stay at Adams, WI:

West Chicago, today

The answer

... to the question I had from other photos, namely, where had the water tenders got off to?

Thanks for that photo, CNW Chet!

Closer,

If you take a look at the video I linked to that’s the closest I could get here’s a screen grab of it, this was as it was pulling in so it made for an amazing video.

I love seeing steam locomotives in operation

I will have to keep it in mind if I ever get out west again. 

"Rubber Duckie, You're the One..."

Love the Big Rubber Duckie...Saw it in NYC a few years back.  It just makes you smile...

My live view via proxy

I captured a web cam view live as the train entered Laramie on it's return from Ogden. Thought you might enjoy the view - train was moving.

(Original image is 1,296px × 946px - If you wish to see it larger, right click on the image and select "View" and you should be able to zoom)

For those of us near Southern California

Mid-October is a good time to catch 4014 - exact schedule not quite done yet.

Mid-October Excursion

And the roof

Crowd Control

It's a beaut for sure, but

It's a beaut for sure, but someday I'd like to see it operate without a baby sitter diesel.  It's a wonder those things were able to operate on their own back in the day, or are today operators so un-trusting?  It kinda ruins it for me to see this steam engine not operating on its own.

Helpers...

As I understand it, diesels are often used on steam trips to run the power in the passenger cars. But most RRs want that diesel there, just in case something goes wrong on the big black puffy thing up front.

All that said, if you gotta have a diesel behind the steam engine, okay, why not one of the UP's E units?

Unidentified blue flag on 4014

We noticed at the Altoona WI stop the engineer had a blue flag mounted on a bracket in front of his window. It had what looked like some type of medallions hanging from it. Does this replace the normal blue 'working on car' flag that would normally be displayed in front of the engine? At one point he pulled the flag in and, while talking on the radio, he was doing something with the medallions.

Anybody know what the deal is on this.

Jim

The baby sitter

From what I've heard....

About the reliability of the new Tier 4 SD70s, the Big Boy is babysitting the diesel....

Scott Chatfield