Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena has been talking about another history-making coast-to-coast tour for the world’s largest locomotive known as "Big Boy” again, most recently at the Midwest Association of Rail Shippers annual meeting last week in Chicago.
“We are gonna run that Big Boy, which I really have a love-hate relationship with, I really do,” Vena said during his keynote Thursday morning. “Unless it can carry 100 cars of grain, I don’t want it on the railroad. But, at the end of the day, there’s a lot of benefits for it, and we are going to run it across the country. We are going to go coast to coast.”
Big Boy 4014 makes its home in Cheyenne, and often tours all over the West during the summer.
But the 600-ton locomotive — the world’s largest operating steam locomotive — has never been back to the East Coast since rolling out of the factory that built it in Schenectady, New York, in 1941.
Vena said the coast-to-coast tour could start at the end of March, but also said there are “a few problems with our partner in the East” when it comes to finalizing the trip and suggested they better “freaking hurry up.”
Merger Plans Could Be Key
Vena used most of his time during the annual meeting to talk about the benefits of a proposed $85 million merger between Union Pacific Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railway, creating the first U.S. transcontinental railroad.
The merger has been a key element in developing a coast-to-coast Big Boy Tour, Union Pacific Communications Manager Mike Jaixen confirmed to Cowboy State Daily.
“The merger plans have opened the conversation that is allowing the Big Boy to travel outside of the Union Pacific network this summer,” he said in an email. “Stay tuned for updates as we work to finalize our plans for this year.”
The Surface Transportation Board recently found that the merger application filed in December was incomplete.
“Today’s decision is based solely on the incompleteness of the December 19 application and should not be read as an indication of how the Board might ultimately assess any future revised application,” the board said in announcing its decision. “The decision directs applicants to file a letter in the docket by Feb. 17, 2026, indicating if and when they anticipate filing a revised application.”
Behind The Scenes — A Lot Of Measuring
One of the things that’s ongoing right now, Jaixen also confirmed, is an inspection of the entire Big Boy route, to ensure its feasibility.
The Saturday before the Rail Shippers meeting in Chicago, Union Pacific Heritage Operations Manager Ed Dickens, who oversees Big Boy 4014, posted pictures of “necessary detailed work that is underway” on the company’s official Steam Shop Club Facebook page, showing some of that effort taking place.
In one photo, an individual with his back turned to the camera is standing between railroad tracks and a stone wall, measuring the distance between them.
The individual is wearing a yellow reflective safety jacket with a Union Pacific logo that has the number 4014 printed inside.
Commenters were worried about how tight things looked in some of the spaces.
“I dunno, Ed, the track looks pretty close to that wall,” a commenter identifying himself as Daniel Parsons wrote. “The Big Boy might have a tough time thru there.”
Dickens, however, responded, “It will fit with room to spare … Thanks, Daniel.”
Parsons responded back with, “I trust you, thanks, Ed, and good luck with the nationwide tour.”
Dickens’ post goes on to remind people to stay at least 25 feet away from the tracks and to practice responsible photography and drone operations.
Lots of people whipped out their cell phones for selfies and videos of Big Boy 4014 during its hourlong stop in Cheyenne in 2024. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Ed Dickens, center, looks out the window at a crowd of fans videotaping and waving at Big Boy. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily) 
Big Boy 4014 makes the first stop on its 2024 summer tour in Laramie, Wyoming, on Sunday morning, June 30, 2024. Hundreds of curious people and serious train buffs waited for more than two hours to get a good viewing spot., (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
Big Boy 4014 makes the first stop on its 2024 summer tour in Laramie, Wyoming, on Sunday morning, June 30, 2024. Hundreds of curious people and serious train buffs waited for more than two hours to get a good viewing spot., (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
A huge crowd turned out to see Big Boy 4014 when it pulled into the station in Houston, Texas, in summer 2021. (Getty Images) 
Big Boy was the center of attention during an hourlong stop at the Cheyenne Depot in 2024. (Renee Jean, Cowboy State Daily)
Transcontinental Tour Will Take Effort
In a July Q&A, Dickens also talked about what it takes to plan Big Boy’s summer tours and said it’s not just his steam shop that makes it all possible. It takes multiple teams across Union Pacific to help plan out each whistle stop along the way, as well as ensure that the locomotive is going to fit into existing freight operations.
“It’s a great masterpiece of teamwork and cooperation to make it all happen,” he said.
The Steam Shop’s part in all that is making sure Big Boy remains mechanically sound and safe for travel on the rails. Sometimes that includes a touch of modernization, such as the addition of Positive Train Control to the steam locomotive in 2024. That allows it to now operate solo on the rail whenever that would be required — such as for a long trip to the East Coast.
One of the other things Dickens has also been doing in the steam shop behind the scenes is restoring a Niles 90-inch wheel lathe.
“(That will) ensure we can perform more and more of the maintenance that keeps Big Boy No. 4014 and the Living Legend No. 844 operating,” Jaixen said. “Union Pacific is proud of the hard work our Steam program does to keep our legacy running strong now and into the future.”
Machinist’s Idea Beats Marketer's
Union Pacific’s Big Boy 4014 is one of 25 Big Boy locomotives built during World War II so that heavy equipment could be hauled to the West Coast over the Wasatch Mountains, in the event it was needed for the war effort.
The Wasatch Mountains were a huge barrier when it came to shipping heavy equipment West, and Union Pacific knew they’d need a much more powerful locomotive to get the job done.
In the beginning, Big Boys were supposed to be called Wasatch, since they were going to go over the Wasatch Mountains. But a machinist in the factory wrote “Big Boy” in chalk on the front of one of the steam engines, and, ultimately, that was the name that stuck.
The name just says it all about this locomotive, which is 133-feet long, 15-feet, 4-inches tall, and 11-feet wide. Full loaded with water and fuel, it weighs 600 tons, making it the largest operating steam locomotive in the world.
The dimensions weren’t an accident. That was as tall and as wide and as long as the bridges, tunnels and curves of the day would allow. Any wider and the locomotive wouldn’t fit some passages. Any taller, and there were tunnels it couldn’t enter. And any longer, and there were curves that would be a problem to navigate.
Big Boys rolled out of the American Locomotive Company’s Schenectady, New York, plant starting in 1941 and headed West to Green River, which was to be their home base until they were taken out of service in 1962. Some of the Big Boys were lost to time. Others went to museums, like Big Boy 4014, which was in a California museum when Union Pacific decided to bring it back and restore it in time for the 150th anniversary of the First Transcontinental Railroad in 2019.
Dickens oversaw that restoration and has overseen Big Boy ever since.
Big Boy 4014 is the only Big Boy still traveling the rails, although some of its brethren are on display in St. Louis, Dallas, Omaha, Denver, and Scranton.
Big Boy has toured all over the West in the years since, like the 2024 Heartland of America Tour, an eight-week event that included stops in Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.
But Big Boy has never been further east than Chicago since rolling off the line in the 1940s.
If a transcontinental tour for Big Boy is realized, it will mark Big Boy 4014’s first return to the East Coast since it was built, making it a historic way for Union Pacific to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
