It had spent its retirement on display at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona until Union Pacific brought it home in 2014. So famous was the Big Boy that seven survive in parks and museums, but only No. This behemoth, built in 1941 for Union Pacific, remained in service until 1959. As many as 5,000 people gathered in Laramie, Wyo., the first stop on the locomotive’s five-day journey to Ogden, Utah, and thousands more came to trackside all along the route. That depot is now a museum, and 2,000 spectators had bought tickets to be there and cheer every blast of 4014’s melodious whistle. On a sunny Saturday morning, the massive locomotive, gleaming black, fresh from the restoration shop where it had spent more than two years, was wreathed in steam as it rolled to a stop in front of the depot. 4014, one of 25 Big Boys, Union Pacific’s largest and best-known steam locomotives and with a connection to Southern California. Golden Spike festivities had gotten off to a spectacular start six days earlier and 460 miles east in Cheyenne, Wyo., with the christening of No. Remember the Chinese immigrants who built America’s first transcontinental railroad »ġ50 years ago, they were working on the railroad: La Mesan organizes celebration of Chinese laborers’ record-setting day »
