Locomotive Friday

UP’s famous Big Boy is making a sweep around middle America, and I was fortunate enough to see it. It was four hours late (ain’t that like a railroad!) due to issues with other trains with higher priorities, but despite the wait, was impressive as could be wished for.

First, a few facts: The locomotive ALONE is just over 85 feet long, and with a tender, 132 feet. Call it about half-a-dozen ’60s Pontiac Catalinas end to end.  And, at 1,200,000 pounds, the largest class of steam locomotive ever built. That’s 600 tons of rolling stock on 24 wheels (4-8-8-4 for you purists).  By comparison, an M-1 Abrams tank tips the scales at a svelte 74 tons mas o meno.

I found a spectacular spot a few miles out of town where I kicked rocks all afternoon as the cars drove by on the road. Visibility up and down the track was close to a mile. A hard core family and a train enthusiast who drive 180 miles to get there stayed the afternoon – several other folks pulled in, but mostly left after an hour or so. (Acknowledgement – a book of Eric Frank Russell short stories sure helped pass the time. That and reordering my glove box and reading my owner’s manual.) Finally trains started coming through – from about 8-10 feet off the track, a highballin’ freight train is seriously impressive.

Finally! The most unmistakable train whistle in the world (diesels just-don’t-get-it)  down the track and the train went chuffing by.  The big freights were faster, but the close-up impression of the Big Boy is overwhelming. I once was on a mountain bike sharing a tank trail with a few M-1s near Ft. Bliss and thought I had been impressed then….this blew that away. Size, speed, and proximity made it unforgettable.

The family had gone for pizza and kindly gave me a couple of slices – their train-freak little boy wanted coins to flatten on the track. They had only a quarter, so I went to my stash and gave him a shiny $1 coin. Heck, I pulled one out for me, too.  They came out wafer thin, which was expected – what was NOT expected was that they left images stamped into the steel track! I would have bet cash green money the coin was too soft for that.

The crowd downtown, which had been over 10,000 people earlier in the day, had thinned considerably over the hours and I’m thinking there were maybe a thousand or so  left. The police were lenient and let people cross the tracks to get better pictures, and generally get a lot closer to the train than I expected.  One thing that struck me – UP guys were madly lubricating pretty much every moving bit with oil and grease while they stopped – I asked one of them how frequently they had to do that and he said “About every 60 or 70 miles!” And we thought PMCSing Army vehicles was a pain! When they vented steam from the system (right) it was LOUD – think the crowd REALLY startled loud.

Too short a visit… if you are near its route, I recommend making the effort. The link to the schedule is below.

https://www.up.com/media/releases/big-boy-4014-nr-240812.htm

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