Yes, I love how it looked back then! I've heard UP wont' pull freight with it. We wont' get to hear it really working. Excursion trains are nothing for 4014 to pull.
It’s so awesome to see old footage of the 4014 doing what it was built to do and then seeing it for yourself in excursion service over half a century after these videos were taken. Who would’ve ever guessed in the 1950s that this Big Boy would be back up and running over 60 years later?
Little did the 4014 know that it would be retired and then much later on in life become a massive superstar excursion locomotive 60+ years later in the future.
@@EvilTurkeySlices I think 4014 was the first Big Boy to be preserved. It was in the best shape of all 25. Union Pacific took a lot of care in which Big Boys to preserve, so the 8 that are preserved were thoroughly inspected as the 17 others that were scrapped, and those 8 were granted preservation.
@@joeruiz4010 I think it depended on the shape they were in when they were retired from service I think it was 4023 that had the highest mileage well over 1,000,000 miles. I think it also depends on which museums asked for one. I know the one near me 4017 was asked for when it was retired and the up gladly donated it.
Who cannot help but smile at this? Knowing the dream is real, because of this giant, Big Boy lives again, the hope fans wanted for decades blessed our prayers in 2019. :)
@@1940limited 25 big boys were built 8 of them survived the cutting torch they chose 4014 because it was in the best condition of the eight survivors. I know they looked at 4017 up here at the national railroad museum in Green Bay but they determined that 4014 was the one
THIS is what this beauty was built for. It's a shame we will most likely never see her pulling long freight trains anymore. Edit: This comment aged like milk and for once that is a good thing. Proud of her.
@@evanburt2766 3985 never for a proper rebuild when they brought it back into service unlike 4014, I’ think they’ll baby it for a good while(probably 2-3 years more) and then pull some big stuff.
I wish that UP would put a heavy train behind 4014 unassisted so we could hear it talk like in this video. It's so quiet in modern day videos bc it's barely working.
Well with 4014 being the only operational big boy that is The union Pacific is going to baby her I have no doubt that the 4014 could still a train up Sherman Hill unassisted but if something breaks on this engine they have to make the part! I think once in a great while they will put her to work they have done that occasionally with the 844 and the 3985 can you imagine though if the 4014 was still coal burning? That would be exciting! The smoke she would’ve been putting out would’ve been awesome!
Well a while ago, you got your wish because it managed to shove a stalled diesel powered freight train, and while it was doing so you could really hear it go. There are videos of it on RU-vid.
@@91_C4_FL well, you must admit, you certainly could hear it going. There’s no denying it was working. I’m pretty sure one day we will see pull a large freight train, even if it won’t be quite as large as the ones that used to pull. you know what I would like to see if we could see it pulling a large freight, train, while double heading either with challenger, 3985 or a Centennial diesel
I also saw Union Pacific 4014 in person... twice. Both times in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2021, I chased it from Lawrence, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri. I have the videos on my main account where I post my train videos (Midwestern Railfan).
A lot of this footage seems to have come from Pentrex's Union Pacific Big Boy collection. Either way, it's pretty awesome seeing modern day excursion engines in revenue service!
I have goosebumps! Watching this old video of Big Boy on a duty, and watching him restored today, still doing its duty by helping a stalled train to climb a hill, just amazes me so much! Big Boy still have the old juice!
Fabulous footage. What a piece of machinery! Back when we could build something in this country. Now all we do is take in laundry and turn out hamburgers. I can't imagine what it must have ben like behind the throttle of a UP Big Boy.
@@SteamTrainFan I’ve seen 4014 twice! Once in Duluth Minnesota at the RailRoad museum there and once when she came through my hometown when the first steam locomotive you see up close and personal and get to touch is a Union pacific big boy you are spoiled for life! The first big boy that I saw was 4017 in Green Bay
Many people believe 4014 holds the title for hauling the last revenue train of a 4-8-8-4, she was not. On July 21st 1959 4015 rolled in with the last revenue freight train, and it was also the first of the 25 to be scrapped.
The sounds were already in the videos when I found them, which is actually from back then. I'm not sure if whoever put together the footage back then did that because there wasn't audio recording or if it's just the quality. Some of the footage was recorded by Union Pacific in the 1950s and 1960s, so chances are most of this is the original sound.
@@SteamTrainFan oh, it's just that in GSVP's programs of old steam during the 1940s and 1950s, they usually have a message at the beginning saying that the films they had were silent films and that they chose not to dub the videos they had with sounds from say steam excursions or something. Also in Cab Forward Collection, I thought I heard a sound being used again and again and thought that Pentrex was sound dubbing the videos. So I thought that the sounds here were dubbed. Apologies if I was mistaken.
@@harrisonofcolorado8886 you would be right with that. In the cab scene, there was a part with raw sound and the rest was talking, so I just recycled the sound over the talking parts. 😅
I’m pretty sure they had to put cotton in their ears to prevent hearing loss since there probably were no earplugs back then. At least that’s what I assume.
Idk if this is a hot take or not, but in my honest opinion UP should have never restored 4014. With the way they’re going with her, she’ll never be anything more than a glorified showboat. She’ll never be used for the purpose she was built for (which was hogging long freights up and down the Wasatch & Sherman Hill), and she’ll never be seen without a diesel helper, thanks to her being forever tethered to the helper’s PTC, instead of having her own independent system. Call me a purist, call me a foamer, call me whatever you like… but that’s just how it is and I couldn’t be any more annoyed and deeply disappointed.
I love how they restored Union Pacific 4014, but I think it would be super cool to see it hauling ass on Sherman Hill. The diesel locomotive is actually used for braking and power for the coaches, and the diesel doesn't help move the Big Boy. The Big Boy is moving under its own power. I think they should get sort of like a caboose or observation car of some sort to hold the crew and such on the excursions and a generator car to go with that.
@@SteamTrainFan Yeah, I completely agree with you. But see, even though the diesel isn’t providing power, it’s now the base for 4014’s PTC system which was installed between her 2019 season and her 2021 season. If I can find an article about it I’ll link it in a reply, I think UP made something themselves so I’ll see. But it’s a really big let down, majorly.
Let's be honest, most operational surviving steam locomotives aren't used the way they were "intended", but this doesn't have to be a bad thing, in fact it can actually be a good thing. Since these steam locomotives are normally run more lightly than they did in their prime it saves them a lot of wear and tear, which keeps maintenance labor and costs at a relatively optimal level. If they were run heavily like they were back then they'd be much more expensive to maintain, especially since spare parts have to all be custom machined as they're no longer manufactured. In addition, although 4014 will no longer be regularly used for freight trains, the UP have stated that they'll use 4014 for occasional freight trains when the opportunity comes, like they did with Challenger 3985 in 1990. IMO having a steam locomotive run at all is much better than keeping it on display. Steam locomotives on display are merely museum pieces, and while there's nothing really wrong with that, just sitting on display would never show anyone in person how they work and sound. Sure, you could just look up some historical videos online of the locomotive in action, but where's the fun in that? Operational steam locomotives are much more popular with railfans and tourists because, for most of them, they get to experience in person the fascinating sights and sounds of a bygone era of railroading that their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents remember so fondly. Plus steam locomotives are way more fun to watch in action than diesels and electrics. Steam locomotives are vehicles, like cars, and just like cars, especially classic/rare ones, they deserve better than to sit around and collect dust - they deserve to be driven, to be "alive".
Awesome video! But a usual On most American railroads back in the day, the fireman is always over stoking the fire. You see signs in the locomotives that say black smoke is waste. But did they care?
