After 50 years .. Big Boy 4014

[Barry Donovan]

I could weep if I let myself.




is it the toughest biggest baddest machine in the world going down those tracks..
incredible.

[Barry Donovan]

another one, gives some scale of size.



interesting tidbit:

that one locomotive, without any cars is the weight of 500+ honda civics.


this photo has less than one hundred ricers in clear sight.. ~~

[Huskinhano]

A million pounds of machinery, literally. There's one in Steamtown in Scranton PA. For anyone into the early days of steam locomotives and coal, Scranton is the place to go. Steamtown is great, a national park devoted to the steam locomotive and it's history. While there, the Lacawana coal mine tour is a must to see the brutal days of coal mining and see just how disposable human life was. Whether an adult male or a 10 YO boy.

[Huskinhano]

Here's a link to some pictures. My daughter, Lia and myself a bout 12 years ago. http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/11293330

[Huskinhano]

This is the Tunkhannock viaduct for theLacawana RR. Built in the early 1900's it was the largest concrete structure in the world. A must see for any RR buff!

[DanStokes]

LOVE steam locomotives. Too bad he isn't pulling that train but I'll wager that's in his future. SO GLAD that there are folks who love these old dragons and work to keep them alive. Steam punk my a$$ - this is the real thing.

Dan

[Huskinhano]

Dan, they're going to restore the Big Boy in Steamtown.

[Barry Donovan]

LOVE steam locomotives. Too bad he isn't pulling that train but I'll wager that's in his future. SO GLAD that there are folks who love these old dragons and work to keep them alive. Steam punk my a$$ - this is the real thing.

Dan

that will be a running machine (probably still is), going to the depot.

they left off with 4500 tons ability, started off limited to 3000 something, realized what they had built later on. Never maxxed it out. Gives me goosepimples.

to witness the power of steel, be it a 60 foot beam getting hauled on a rig, or a traffic jam on a bridge bouncing (gw bridge)..or the man at the throttle of ayuke taking a 150,000 pound plane down a graded taxi ramp..

the density of 4014 on wheels is just freakishly incredible.

[DanStokes]

Dan, they're going to restore the Big Boy in Steamtown.

WONDERFUL!

Dan

[Matt Cramer]

I was a bit surprised to see the six axle diesel in the lead was - well, not as big as the Big Boy, but didn't look like a toy next to it, either. Amazing to see one put back on the rails.

[silver_bullet]

saw this diesel at the illinois railway museum when AMeanXtreme was little... they have some really interesting equipment ... even running electric bus from the old days in chitown...http://www.irm.org/

[Barry Donovan]

I was a bit surprised to see the six axle diesel in the lead was - well, not as big as the Big Boy, but didn't look like a toy next to it, either. Amazing to see one put back on the rails.

indeed.
the footprint of what is left behind, with hardly anything electric.. they get away with it.
I am still in awe of the steel.

I was just writing that when you put 22ga stainless or not, over a steel existence for looks or what have you (rust prevention) it becomes the weight signal of the actual work load you just covered, while not being the load..

imagine the real thickness in over 1/2 inch or 5/8ths and beyond... as one entity.
simply incredible.

I caught onto this as a little boy, my dad was hauling a 60 foot steel beam.

popped the rivets right out of the front of the cab.
amazed ever since..

[Barry Donovan]

was watching "remrob" (you tube car auction guy) walking through the henry ford museum. Next to the second biggest steam locomotive is strangely a railroad car from bangor and aroostook railroad. A small railroad, it went by my place in lagrange maine. We used to four wheeler down the first set of tracks, abandoned for decades. I actually rally car'd more than one of my cars down that old railroad bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...NeZuC7LA#t=832

funny to see that in the henry ford museum.
some history on bangor and aroostook:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangor_...stook_Railroad

now, my dad is old enough to be in the historic realm of truckers busting ass hauling potatoes, this railroad collapsing was one of the reasons. My dad was also the last generation to cross frozen ocean to prince edward island, and come back across the frozen bay loaded. (yikes). "You could see the ice stretching like a trampoline". Early 1980s. Just yesterday he let out.. "it has been 40 years." 1 year after I was born, he was all over he damn country in cracker jack boxes...including donner pass.

a more recent story reviving old potato haulers was one of his friends in the bangor daily news...who was once his dispatcher, all for the same small one man company.. crashed into the median of I-95 with a trailer busted open down the middle, quite freighted. Potatoes falling out. Old school truckers never change apparently. My dad retiring will be significant. That old friend of his may be all done because of that wreck. Hauling in weight and volume numbers beyond memory, they were the railway. A few men willing, and rigs..into many illegal hours. Todays southern boys with the long wheelbase pulling into mcCains know nothing.

anyway, back to million miles and a million pounds..

wandering around found a site claiming 2-6-6-6 was the most powerful steam trains.. and that is false.

the big boy very well could be the most powerful steam train ever made..and they all had a million miles on them:

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/bigboy/

here is a link about 2-6-6-6

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/allegheny/

they had alot of work to do as well..
but the big boy not only had a steeper hill, they hauled more weight.

[Turbo Regal]

Saw Big Boy 4023 a few years ago in Omaha, NE. I'm glad UP is going to get this one running again.

It's a good thing the Big Boy didn't stop for long; some gang would have tagged it.

[Barry Donovan]

Saw Big Boy 4023 a few years ago in Omaha, NE. I'm glad UP is going to get this one running again.

It's a good thing the Big Boy didn't stop for long; some gang would have tagged it.

I ponder the aurora of noble protects it...
like a fighter plane on display. No one messes with them.

I will be going out of my way if need be, once news that it is running...a must see.
transportation in hauling fed most of my life..still does today.
the big trains are mythological as those giant container ships.