I've been following the restoration and grand tour of Union Pacific's Big Boy (an engine with a wheel arrangement of 4-8-8-4) No. 4014 steam engine for some time now. Once it was fully restored and road tested it went on a grand tour of sorts traveling from Utah to Wisconsin and then back out west here. This past Sunday, Oct 6 it arrived in Las Vegas. The decision to drive down to the Union Pacific plot of land where it would arrive was kind of last minute but Bettina and I decided to go for it and we're glad we did. One YouTuber mentioned that Big Boy must be YouTube's flavor of the month and I guess he's right because there have been like a gazillion videos taken of it and I can understand why - What a magnificent beast!! So without further ado her'es our photo and video coverage. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina
Prior to the arrival of 4014 Bettina said, "What's that?" and without knowing what was happening at first I started recording. What I got was this high-rail truck (I referred to it as a speeder - oops) going down the track. The video is short but it's the only video I have of one of these things
I heard the horn of a UP freight coming our way on an adjacent track and started filming. About a third of the way into the video 4014 arrives and you can hear the excitement in the crowd
I had begun filming yet another UP freight when all of a sudden I a couple of 4014 team member's stepped in front of the camera and I heard someone say they were going to move the engine up to the grade crossing. They did some lubing and some other things but it was taking a while so I stopped filming
I resumed filming just before they actually nudged 4014 up a few feet
Overall it was a terrific way to spend an afternoon
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