UP 4014 - Big Boy - Black-and-White - Border

Hats off to Union Pacific Railroad for finding, restoring and operating this unique steam locomotive - UP 4014.... more

by Bill Kesler

Title

UP 4014 - Big Boy - Black-and-White - Border

Artist

Bill Kesler

Medium

Photograph

Description

Hats off to Union Pacific Railroad for finding, restoring and operating this unique steam locomotive - UP 4014.

Twenty-five (25) Big Boys were built exclusively for Union Pacific Railroad, the first of which was delivered in December 1941. The locomotives were 132’ long and weighed 1.2 million pounds with a wheel configuration of 4-8-8-4. Because of their great length, the frames of the Big Boys were “hinged”, or articulated, to allow them to negotiate curves.

UP 4014 was retired in December 1961, having traveled 1,031,205 miles in its 20 years service. Union Pacific reacquired No. 4014 from the RailGiants Museum in Pomona, California in 2013, and relocated it back to Cheyenne, Wyoming to begin a multi-year restoration process.

In August 2016, Union Pacific announced that the restoration process had begun on UP 4014. It was back on the tracks in early 2019 performing excursion service.

UP 4014 no longer runs on coal, it has been converted to operate on No. 5 fuel oil.

UP 4014 is now the world’s largest operational steam locomotive.

I made this photograph a couple miles west of Chappell, Nebraska on August 7, 2019 with UP 4014 westbound in route to its home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I chose to post-process this photograph in black-and-white. This photograph is also available in sepia tone, see my gallery titled The Railroad Collection.

Thank you for your purchase. A Certificate of Authenticity is available from the artist. After you make your purchase, click on the CONTACT button to send me an email. In the email please give me the mailing address you would like the certificate mailed to. There is no charge for the certificate. Thank You!

Uploaded

August 15th, 2019