The first sure sign of the approaching Big Boy No. 4014 steam locomotive was the vintage horn.

“You can hear it from miles away,” Alan Nash said. “Those old steam horns have a unique tone. They’re not like what we hear on regular trains, that’s for sure. It’s got a deep roar.”

Then the ground began to rumble with increasing intensity as the locomotive approached a tunnel under the Albin-La Grange Rd 162 where a crowd of enthusiasts had gathered to witness Big Boy No. 4014 emerge from the other side.

The engineer blasted the horn a few more times for the cheering crowd as Nash, a train engineer himself, snapped photos from just a few yards away.

“You could feel the weight and the mass of it as it was going by,” Nash said. “It’s just very impressive.”

Union Pacific Railroad’s restored 1940s-era Big Boy No. 4014 cruises the rails near Albin June 7, 2023. (Alan Nash)

No. 4014 first took to the rails in 1941, one of five Big Boys in the Union Pacific Railroad fleet, according to the company. It mostly pulled cars between Ogden, Utah and Cheyenne before being retired in 1961 when railroads were finalizing their switch to diesel engines. Restoration of the Big Boy was completed in 2019. Since, Union Pacific has fired it up for an occasional celebratory run, attracting train enthusiasts who travel hundreds of miles to catch a glimpse of it in action.

“There’s people that are just flat out rail fans,” Nash said. “They’re crazy about it.”

On this run on June 7, Big Boy No. 4014 departed Cheyenne, chugged through Egbert then north to Albin and headed east to make its way to North Platte, Nebraska.

A crowd of train enthusiasts gather June 7, 2023 to watch Union Pacific Railroad’s restored 1940s-era Big Boy No. 4014 pass nearby Albin. (Alan Nash)

It was the first time Nash had the opportunity to witness the iconic piece of American engineering and Wyoming railroad history in action, he said. Nash runs Union Pacific coal trains between the Black Thunder mine in the southern Powder River Basin to just across the border in Nebraska.

Accustomed to the modern technology of today’s train engines, Nash has a special appreciation for the ingenuity behind the old Big Boys and the labor they required from his predecessors.

“To know that they did all that and they manufactured those things without all the technology that we have today is amazing.”

Dustin Bleizeffer covers energy and climate at WyoFile. He has worked as a coal miner, an oilfield mechanic, and for more than 25 years as a statewide reporter and editor primarily covering the energy...

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  1. Love these old guys! Each time they announce that one of them is going to “tour” I pull up the Union Pacific schedule on the internet and plan my time to see them. Even sitting still, they are awesome! Out on the track they are magnificient. Everyone should experience seeing these marvels if they can!

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