Big Boy Steams East For America’s 250th: Where To See Massive Locomotive

Big Boy 4014, only operational among 25 of the massive steam locomotives built in the 1940s to open a vital route for wartime logistics, will steam across 10 states this spring and summer to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary.

The Semiquincentennial tour marks Big Boy’s first journey 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.

The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotives, often called “Giants of the West,” were 25 massive steam engines built in the 1940s to haul heavy freight over the steep Wasatch grades between Utah and Wyoming. Weighing 1.2 million pounds and stretching 133 feet, they were a symbol of American industry.

The eastern leg of the coast-to-coast tour brings Big Boy onto Norfolk Southern tracks with more than 50 whistle-stops and display days across eight cities.

A highlight of the 10-state tour is a July 4-5 stop in Philadelphia, the birthplace of America, the Union Pacific Railroad announced Monday. Other major events in Pennsylvania are scheduled in Scranton from June 15-16 and Altoona from July 9-10.

Whistle stops — 15- to 30-minute stops where people can line up to see the historic steam engine — are planned in several other Pennsylvania locations.

As part of the tour, the Union Pacific Museum will be selling tickets to ride in vintage passenger cars pulled by Big Boy through the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania on June 14. Interested riders can purchase tickets here.

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 founder,
• 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.

Other major stops for Big Boy 4014 are:

• May 30: Omaha, Nebraska (home of Union Pacific’s headquarters)
• June 3: West Chicago, Illinois
• June 10: Buffalo, New York
• July 14: Fostoria, Ohio
• July 19: St. Louis, Missouri

The time and location for each whistle stop – and instructions for ticketed events – can be found at UP.com.

Nebraska

• May 25: Kimball
• May 26: Ogallala
• May 28: Gothenburg, Overton, Kearney, Grand Island
• May 29: Columbus

Iowa

• May 31: Denison and Carroll
• June 1: Tama and Belle Plaine
• June 2: Grand Mound

Illinois

• June 2: Sterling and Rochelle
• July 18: Springfield and Girard

Indiana

• June 5: Argos
• July 16: Knox

Ohio

• June 6: Continental and Fostoria
• June 8: Lorain and Euclid
• July 12: Struthers
• July 13: Rocky River
• July 15: Continental

New York

• June 9: Ripley
• June 11: Silver Springs, Hornell and Letchworth State Park (park admission required)
• June 12: Owego

Pennsylvania

• June 9: North East
• June 13: Nicholson
• June 17-30: Scranton and Steamtown National Historic Site, locomotive maintenance (park admission required)
• July 2: Reading and Pottstown
• July 7: Lebanon
• July 8: Lewistown and Altoona
• July 11: Cresson, Leetsdale and Historic Horseshoe Curve; ticketed event.

Missouri

• July 20: Pacific and Hermann
• July 21: California and Kansas City
• July 22: Kansas City

Kansas

• July 23: Topeka and Salina
• July 24: Wilson and Hays
• July 25: Hays
• July 26: Grainfield

Colorado

• July 27: Kit Carso and Strasburg
• July 29: Greeley

Wyoming

• July 29: Home in Cheyenne

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.