| Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 4014 steams across the Wyoming countryside near Cheyenne in October 1958. The "Big Boy" locomotives time was running out, and on July 21, 1959, the 4014 would pull its last revenue train. (It, and a few other Big Boys, would be stored servicable, however, for a few more years until officially retired in 1961.) UP 4014 would be donated to the Railway and Locomotive Societys southern California chapter in 1962, arriving at their site for display in January 8th, 1962. Fifty-one years later, on July 23, 2013, the UP announced that an agreement had been reached with the R&LHS to acquire the 1941-built Big Boy with the intention of restoring it. If all goes according to plan, Union Pacific 4014 will be under steam again and rolling along these tracks across Wyoming later this decade! |