Union Pacific Big Boy rolls through

The Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive -- technically No. 4014 -- has traveled across the U.S. to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad.  It reached Chicagoland on Friday.

The Big Boy is "a four-cylinder 4-8-8-4 steam locmotive. Built in 1941 it is the only operating Big Boy ouf the eight in existence." It weighs 1.25 million lbs.  (Read more about it here.)

I monitored the online Steam Tracker to calculate when it would reach the nearest crossing to us ( 4 miles west of where we live).  At 10:00 a.m. we got a good parking place near the tracks.
Other people had the same idea.



I forgot to bring the folding chairs but we had books.  (Though we ended up talking with people rather than reading.)

Freight trains, wildflowers, and books:   a very Blaine tribute.  (My dad was a railroader, my mother loved wildflowers, and we all love books.)





I should have just snapped pictures instead of going for video.  (This may not upload).

Here it comes. (A still shot taken from the video attempt.)

Right:  I was TOO close!






There it goes!

I learned later that the train stopped for a half hour at the Wadsworth crossing.


I had four shiny pennies in my wallet and placed them on the track. I forgot to retrieve them when the crowd dispersed.  I went back an hour and a half later and found two of them, smashed but still shiny!  I will make them into earrings.