Big Boy Steam Locomotive Rolls Into IL For America’s 250th: When To See It

Big Boy No. 4014, the last of the great steam engines called the “Giants of the West,”, will roll into West Chicago on June 3 for a major event commemorating America’s 250th anniversary.

Big Boy 4014 is the world’s largest operating steam locomotive and the only one of eight remaining Big Boys in existence today that is still in operation.

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The Semiquincentennial tour marks the first time Big Boy has steamed across the Mississippi River and into the Ohio Valley since it was built in Schenectady, New York, and delivered to Union Pacific Railroad in 1941, the company said in a statement.

Whistle stops —15- to 30-minute stops where people can line up to see the 1.2 million-pound, 133-foot locomotive — are also planned elsewhere in Illinois. They will be held June 2 in Sterling and Rochelle as Big Boy steams east, and on July 18 in Springfield and Girard as the locomotive returns to its home base in Wyoming.

Traveling behind the historic steam engine on the coast-to-coast tour will be several historical passenger cars from Union Pacific’s Heritage Fleet, along with two commemorative locomotives:

• No. 1616 Abraham Lincoln locomotive, which commemorates the country’s 16th president and Union Pacific’s “founding father.”
• No. 1776 – America250, which features the emblem of the America250 Semiquincentennial Commission, the national nonpartisan organization established by Congress to lead the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The eastern leg of the tour includes major events and more than 50 whistle stops in 10 states. Major public displays like the one in West Chicago will also be held in Omaha; Scranton, Philadelphia, and Altoona, all in Pennsylvania; Buffalo, New York; Fostoria, Ohio; and St. Louis.

Whistle stops are also planned in Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado before it returns home to Wyoming on July 29. The western leg of the Big Boy coast-to-coast tour concluded on April 29.

The eastern portion of the tour will operate across the Norfolk Southern network, marking a historic collaboration between two of the nation’s storied railroads and bringing the legendary locomotive back to communities that helped power America’s industrial rise, Union Pacific said in a

“This tour celebrates our company’s rich 164-year history, our nation’s amazing story and the people who have helped build our great country and our railroad,” Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena said in a statement.

The route through the Ohio Valley, Pennsylvania and the Northeast reflects the historic role railroads played in shaping America’s economic heartland, connecting factories, ports and population centers and fueling the nation’s growth across generations, the railroads said.

For nearly 200 years, Norfolk Southern and its predecessor railroads have served these corridors, helping move the people and goods that built the modern United States.