Have You Seen This? Utah's Big Boy takes over the East Coast for the first time

THE EAST COAST — Big Boy No. 4014 regularly crossed the Wasatch Mountains in its heyday, largely because the world's largest steam engine was built to handle the grueling task.

Thanks to more consolidated rails over time and the massive America 250 celebration, the hefty, 1.1-million-pound train has been on its longest journey yet — to the East Coast for the first time. The tour, which came through Utah in April, has created new, extraordinary views of the train beyond those the West Coast has offered for decades.

Big Boy crossed the Portage Viaduct at Letchworth State Park in New York on Thursday, belting its whistle over the park's Upper Falls. Before that, it traveled past many historic trestle bridges, rolling hills, woods and farmlands across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio along the way, journeying east of the Mississippi River.

Big Boy's East Coast journey began late last month from Cheyenne, Wyoming. It was one of 25 built to haul materials between Utah and Wyoming in the 1940s and 1950s, and returned to Utah this year for the western leg of Union Pacific's first coast-to-coast tour of the historic steam engine for America 250.

Its eastern takeover is far from over. Big Boy is headed to Pennsylvania, where it will be for some time. It's scheduled to be displayed in Philadelphia on July 4, approximately 5 miles from Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago.

The train will ultimately make its way back to the Intermountain West by the end of July, but not before giving more Americans a glimpse of a unique glimpse at Utah-Wyoming history — and giving Big Boy No. 4014 new places to pass through.

Have You Seen This?

Energetic dog eager to show off cannonball trick

A Texas dog steals the show with a pool cannonball trick.

Related topics