Union Pacific "Big Boy" No. 4014, Rochelle, IL July 30, 2019 скачать в хорошем качестве

Union Pacific "Big Boy" No. 4014, Rochelle, IL July 30, 2019

The Union Pacific railroad used to operate the world's largest steam locomotive, called the "Big Boy", from early the 1940s until 1959, primarily to haul long freight trains over the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and Wyoming. No Big Boys have operated since then, until Union Pacific decided to restore Big Boy No. 4014, a job that was completed in early 2019. In July 2019, Union Pacific sent No. 4014 on "The Great Race Across the Midwest". It began at the locomotive's home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, went east to Des Moines, then north to St. Paul, then Duluth, then back to St. Paul, then down to West Chicago (IL), and then back to Cheyenne via Des Moines. I was out of town for the three days that 4014 was on display in West Chicago, so I took a day off on Tuesday, July 30, in hopes of catching it as it passed west through Illinois towards Iowa. I chose Rochelle because the train was supposed to stop briefly there. It turned out to be a mob scene, and it was hard to get a view of the Big Boy. It had arrived about one hour late, reportedly due to trouble getting out of West Chicago due to large mobs crowding the tracks. Because I suspected that the train would depart Rochelle after only a short stop in order to remain on schedule, I drove a few miles west to a location I had spotted on Google Maps, where a small rural road passed over the tracks on a bridge. This proved to be much less crowded, but the Big Boy was moving pretty fast by the time it reached the bridge, so the view was fleeting. But it was a thrill to finally see personally the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world. Instead of posting a 30 second video, I decided to include some 'ambience' video, including a long freight train pulled by many locomotives, and a couple other trains that passed through Rochelle.