![]() A few dozen onlookers climbed up the concrete embankment of the overpass to snap photos. Traffic on neighboring roads slowed to a crawl as motorists craned their necks for a view of the locomotive.īig Boy let out a cloud of steam as it slowed to a stop just shy of a highway overpass. My day in Texas ended at a former Southern Pacific rail yard some 25 miles north of College Station, where, as usual, a sizable crowd had gathered to watch the impressive train pull into town. And in those days a town’s train station might have acted as the social hub of the community: It was where the day’s mail arrived, where telegraph operators sent and received messages from around the world, where loved ones shared teary goodbyes and joyful hugs of reunion, where marching bands escorted parades of fighting men as they marched off to participate in two world wars in as many generations - and where they returned home, both the living and the dead. During the golden era of railroading, after all, practically every major city and town in the United States was linked by passenger railroad. ![]() Perhaps Union Pacific 4014 reminds us of a time when our communities were more connected with one another. Never mind the fact that many of our consumer goods are moved by rail at some point, or that vital raw materials - steel, lumber, sand, petroleum products - as well as produce and other perishables are commonly transported on our nation’s freight rail system.Īnd yet, even to nonenthusiasts, there’s something mesmerizing about witnessing this particular locomotive - though I struggle to explain exactly why that is. Freight trains can block road crossings for long stretches at a time their loud horns can be heard at all hours of the night occasionally they even derail in a terrifying fashion. A steady parade of modern diesel locomotives passed by on adjacent tracks, their engineers and conductors leaning out the windows of their own cabs to get a better look at the mighty relic of yesteryear.įor many Americans, encountering a train is merely an inconvenience. Youngsters - many of them dressed in engineer overalls and pinstripe caps - tugged at their parents’ arms in excitement. The Big Boy sat on static display as thousands of spectators filed into a gravel lot near the city’s Amtrak station. And the Big Boy would make dozens of brief whistle stops in small trackside towns along the way.Īnd so it was that in August 2021 I joined the crowd of rail enthusiasts following Union Pacific 4014 to Fort Worth. Louis, Fort Worth, New Orleans and Denver, among other cities. Major publicity stops were planned in St. ![]() The tour would span 34 days and stretch through 10 states in the Midwest and the South. So when its new schedule was announced in 2021, a certain corner of the internet was set abuzz. Union Pacific 4014 was returned to service in 2019 after a multiyear restoration, but the pandemic forced the cancellation of its 2020 tour. ![]()
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