7/27/26 Big Boy

The Union Pacific Big Boy was the largest steam locomotive that was ever made. It was the only 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive and they were built from 1941-1944. They are over 85 feet long, 11 foot wide, over 16 feet tall, and they came in at a weight of 1.2 million pounds. They were designed to haul freight over the Wasatch Range between Ogden, Utah and Green River, Wyoming. Only 8 remain and in 2013 Union Pacific reacquired number 4014 and by 2019 they had restored it to operational status making it the only operational Big Boy in the world. I heard that this was coming through town and went with my family out to Strasburg where it was scheduled to make a stop to see it. I do not think that these pictures fully convey how massive it is. The first 12 pictures are from a Holga 120N loaded with Ektar and shooting 6×6. The Holga is more known as a toy and an art camera than a serious on and vignetting you see in the pictures comes from how it was designed. The rest are from my Canon A-1 with a 50mm F1.8 Canon lens loaded with Kodak UltraMax 400.