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filed under | railroad | history
Big Boy was the name given to the Union Pacific Railroad's twenty-five 4000 class 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotives built between 1941 and 1944 by Alco. The Big Boys were the only locomotives to have the 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, combining two sets of eight driving wheels with both a four-wheel leading truck for stability entering curves and a four-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox. The Big Boys were specifically designed to pull a 3,600 ton freight train over the long 1.14% grade of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. Before their arrival, Helpers were needed. Adding and removing helpers from a train slowed them down. For such locomotives to be worthwhile, they had to be faster and more powerful than slow mountain luggers like the earlier compound 2-8-8-2s that Union Pacific tried after World War I. To avoid locomotive changes, the new class would need to pull long trains at sustained speed — 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) — once past the mountain grades. Towards the end of the 4000's career in the late 1950s, it was found that they could still pull more than their rated tonnage of 3,600 tons. Their ratings were increased several times until they regularly pulled 4,450 tons up the Wasatch grade, unassisted. 25 Big Boys were built, in two groups of ten and one of five. All were coal burning, with large grates to burn low quality Wyoming coal from mines owned by the railroad. One locomotive, #4005, was experimentally converted to oil. Unlike experience with the Challenger types, this was not successful, and the locomotive was soon changed back to coal. The cited reason for this failure was the use of a single burner, which, with the Big Boy's large firebox, created unsatisfactory and uneven heating. The Big Boy is well represented among preserved steam locomotives in the United States. Eight of the 25 still exist: All except numbers 4005 and 4017 are in the open without protection from the elements. The dry air of Southern California has helped #4014 to remain well preserved, assisted by care of the local chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society. The Steamtown example is also said to be in good condition, though the harsher weather of the northeast has taken its toll. The Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver moved the 4005 to a renovated building in January 2001. Thanks to considerable fundraising and volunteer efforts, number 4017 now resides with other pieces of railroad equipment in a climate-controlled shed at the museum in Green Bay. Number 4023 is the only known Big Boy to move by highway since preservation, to the new Kenefick Park in Omaha, NE. There are currently no operable Big Boys and no plans to return any to running condition. [READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE]
