How many Big Boy steam locos are left?

[Will Clark]

And the subject says it! :cool:

[poohdawg10]

In "The Railroad Encyclopedia" (Author[s] not stated; Longmeadow Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan; 1996), states that there are eight Big Boys left:

4004 - Cheyenne, Wyoming (owned by UP)
4005 - Denver, Colorado
4006 - St. Louis, Missouri
4012 - Scranton, Pennsylvania
4014 - Pomona, California
4017 - Green Bay, Wisconsin
4018 - Dallas, Texas
4023 - Omaha, Nebraska

The book also states that 25 were built. When compared to some other classes of steam locomotives that existed, and 8:25 survival ratio isn't that bad!

-Nick

[E-8]

See the rail news page for a story on the Big Boy in Cheyenne.

Charlie

[2slim]

E8
The link to this story, (at the source),is no longer there. I sent some info to slimjim perhaps we will see something on the 'Wyoming Rails' site soon.

2slim ;)

[Will Clark]

Thanks for that info Pooh, these steam locos deserve to be on the rails, kinda like that one Challenger that still runs today for excursion.

[Dwightman]

Does anybody know how the restoration of 4018 is going (if it's still going)?

Dwight

[fitz]

That whole thing was a farce. As far as anyone knows, 4018 never got a lick of work done toward restoration. There have been a lot of words written on this subject elswhere on the net. :mad:

[Will Clark]

Hey Fitz, if I was the restorer of that 4018 I'd make that sucker run. God gave us brains to destroy and rebuild, I'd say lets do the restoration ourselves and have that Big Boy back on the rails where he belongs.

Notice how I said "he", I prefer to call anything a "He" or "She" if it has a name similar to a human. Cause after all these steam locos breathe like a human & need to be feed for it to move.

[fitz]

I guess you'd have to call a Big Boy "he." 4018 was involved in a movie--the movie company had some guy Danny somebody who was hyping restoring the engine. Apparently money was collected from some interested railfans and a whole lot of people are really ticked off. There was even a website but apparently it has been very inactive. The locomotive was actually moved a few feet at it's home in a Texas RR museum. :(

[Will Clark]

I wish I had 100 million bucks, I'd buy all the Big Boy locos and have all of them run again, not to mention build new track just for these locos. Imagine taking a trip on one of these monsters, the sights and sounds from it.