Seven years after its restoration to operating condition, the world’s largest steam locomotive will visit northern Ohio in early June and mid-July as part of trips to and from an Independence Day celebration in Philadelphia.
Thousands of people are expected to see the Big Boy, a wartime behemoth more than half as long as a Boeing 747 — and heavier than the Queen of the Skies even fully loaded — when it thunders along track between Fort Wayne, Ind., and Bellevue, Ohio leading a special passenger train on June 6. That trip will include a half-hour stop in the Putnam County village of Continental and a 15-minute stop at Fostoria’s Iron Triangle Rail Park.
But the best area opportunity for people to get up close with the massive locomotive is scheduled for July 14, when it will be on public display at Norfolk Southern’s Fostoria Automotive Terminal a few miles northwest of the city for six hours. It is slated for another half-hour stop in Continental the next day after it resumes its return trip home…