The world’s largest operating steam locomotive will chug through Northern California next month, its glossy black front emitting bursts of steam and its frame stretching more than half the length of a jumbo jet.
Big Boy No. 4014 is the last working locomotive of its kind. Built in the early 1940s for Union Pacific to haul freight across the west, it traveled more than a million miles before retiring in 1961. Over fifty years later, Union Pacific restored the locomotive, and it returned it to the tracks in 2019 for ceremonial trips.
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of United States independence, Big Boy will soon begin its first-ever coast-to-coast tour, traveling first from Wyoming to California before embarking on its eastern journey on May 25…