Union Pacific “Big Boy” No. 4014

No. 4014 is one of 25 “Big Boy” class 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for Union Pacific Railroad, delivered in 1941. Designed to haul heavy freight over the steep grades of the Wasatch Range between Ogden, Utah and Green River, Wyoming, the Big Boys were among the largest and most powerful steam locomotives ever built. No. 4014 entered revenue service in December 1941 and operated primarily on Union Pacific’s Sherman Hill route between Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Ogden, Utah, accumulating just over one million miles of service before being retired on December 7, 1961, as the railroad transitioned to diesel power.

Following retirement, No. 4014 was donated in 1962 to the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society and placed on static display at the RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, California, where it remained for more than five decades. In 2013, Union Pacific reacquired the locomotive and transported it to its Cheyenne, Wyoming steam shop, beginning an extensive multi-year restoration to operating condition as part of the railroad’s 150th-anniversary commemorations.

The restoration was completed on May 1, 2019, and No. 4014 moved under its own power for the first time in nearly 60 years, subsequently completing a cross-country tour retracing portions of the original transcontinental railroad route to mark the Golden Spike sesquicentennial. It remains the only currently operational Big Boy of the eight that survive in preservation, and continues to make public appearances throughout the western and central United States.