Blog

Dec 15, 2023

Big Boy pulls up in North Platte

The Union Pacific Railroad’s “Big Boy” No. 4014 reaches its two-night resting

The Union Pacific Railroad's "Big Boy" No. 4014 reaches its two-night resting place Thursday afternoon under North Platte's Poplar Street viaduct, ending a picturesque day steaming through the Panhandle from the shadow of Scotts Bluff National Monument past Chimney Rock and Lake McConaughy. The world's largest steam locomotive, bound for Omaha, will be available for public viewing until it resumes its journey Saturday morning. Big Boy will make a return two-night stop June 30 to July 2.

Pictured, Left to Right, Lisa Sleva, Victor Sleva, Bobby Hare and Melissa Maser. The family friends go on trips together to follow trains all across the United States. They can be seen fist-pumping at passing engines to see if the engineers will blow the whistle.

Local and visiting train fans were lined up taking photos and video Thursday afternoon as Union Pacific Railroad's "Big Boy" No. 4014 steamed into downtown North Platte's Canteen District for a two-night stay. The world's largest operating steam locomotive left its home at Cheyenne, Wyoming, Wednesday for a June 14-27 Omaha stay during the College World Series. It spent Wednesday night in Gering, chugging down the Panhandle for the first time Thursday while passing such landmarks as Chimney Rock and Lake McConaughy. Big Boy will leave North Platte Saturday morning but stop again June 30-July 2 during its return trip to Cheyenne.

The elongated front and chalk-inscribed name of Union Pacific Railroad's "Big Boy" No. 4014 can be seen through the trees Thursday afternoon at the site of North Platte's former 1918 depot. Before pulling up to its two-night resting place near the Poplar Street viaduct, the restored 1941 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive paused at the depot site and let loose a loud whistle blast in honor of the depot, razed in 1973, and North Platte's famous World War II Canteen that was housed there from 1941 to 1946.

As far as showstoppers go, Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 tends to make an entrance. When it made its way through the tracks of North Platte Thursday, it drew quite a crowd. People lined up with their cameras along the tracks, posing with the "living legend" as it came to a stop under the North Poplar viaduct.

Two of the luckiest kids in the world, Bobby Hare and Victor Sleva, were given a chance to ride the train.

The two are friends back home in Kansas. Watching trains is how they met, in fact. The boys travel across the country together attending train events and chasing locomotives down the rails, at a safe distance, of course.

Bobby is a local celebrity among the engineers back home in Wichita. He's persuaded local engineers to invite him on BNSF, K&O and U.P. engines before, but not SKOL (South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad), he said

"He's pretty well known … with the crews. He's always out watching them," said his mother, Melissa Maser.

Bobby said his main way of getting attention is to do the arm pump, signaling to the engineers to honk the train's horn. They generally oblige him. And when they do, he posts footage of the trains whistling online.

"You know, they get bored," he said.

His YouTube channel, "Bobby- the train whisperer" features 183 videos and has 343 subscribers. His YouTube handle is @railfan588. Many videos feature engineers doing the classic "shave and a haircut" pattern.

In the late summer of 2022, U.P. Wichita typed up a small story on Bobby Hare, the boy who would always be there every night fist-pumping at the trains as they went by. Even the local news covered him.

Victor said his favorite train whistle is found on the Norfolk and Western J-611. Those are Hancock Long Bell Three-Chime Whistles. Coincidentally, his mother, Lisa Sleva, said that's what Big Boy has installed. He said he rode on a J-611 so he got really into them when they lived in the Eastern United States.

Victor said after seeing it up close, Big Boy is his new favorite.

"Because it's bigger!" he said. "Steam is always my favorite. I have a bunch of wooden steam locomotives."

Up came Ed Dickens, manager of Union Pacific's Steam Program. With a firm handshake, he introduced himself to the boys and gave them an outside tour of the locomotive and train cars.

"You know, I saw these two young men going like this (fist pumping) by the tracks."

The boys chuckled at that.

"How loud is that whistle?" asked Bobby.

"It's so loud. It makes your teeth — you’re probably too young to have fillings in your teeth. The fillings in your teeth go BvBvBv!BvBvBv!BvBvBv!"

That got even more chuckles.

After handing them Union Pacific gear, pins and official leather gloves, Dickens made it official by signing their names on their gloves. That way, if they dropped them on the yard, they would know who they belonged to.

Then up they went, up into the Big Boy on its narrow side ladder. Underneath, valves and exhaust spit out a constant stream of excess water, making the locomotive look like it was breathing.

The heat from the locomotive in the cab is intense. A person must be careful where they rest an ungloved hand. It's important to always have a source of water while on the Big Boy to beat back the heat.

It gets even toastier when the engineers open the hatch to the boiler. Looking in the small porthole, one can see the oil a giant diffuser sprays into flame, heating the 25,000-gallon belly of the beast.

As the boys and their mothers settled in, Dickens gave a small tour of the cab. He then gave them a small tutorial on safety, showing them various lockout methods to ensure nobody gets hurt.

"Ready to be an engineer?" he asked. "OK, there's a few things you got to do when you’re going to be an engineer. You got to be close to a straight-A student. You straight-A's? Pretty close?

"Does he keep his room clean?" he asked Bobby's mother. "You got to keep your room clean. You can't have a messy cab if you’re going to be an engineer. And then what do you want to do?"

"What?" Bobby asked.

"You got to start at the bottom. That means you got to do all the hard and yucky work. Can you do that?"

"All right."

"You got to do it! Because when you do the yucky work, you learn all these little things. You learn how the engine works, you learn how to put the grease in it, the oil in it. Because there's different kinds of oil. See how hot it is up here?"

Dickens pointed to a temperature gauge at the front of the cab.

"It's 425 degrees. When you bake a cake, what do you set it? So, this is hotter than you bake a cake. This is hotter than you bake a roast. And then, it gets even hotter than that. It gets 750 degrees."

He turned and pulled the whistle, letting that 425 degrees through the three long bell whistle valves.

"WHOOOOOOOOO!"

Then, sitting in the passenger seat, Dickens radioed ground crew, whistled a few more times and pulled a lever, engaging the Big Boy's wheels, propelling the total tractive power of 135,375 pounds, 1.2 million pounds of muscle forward at a glacial pace to give these youngsters a ride they never expected.

They waved at passersby on the ground as the locomotive dwarfed everyone. It was almost as if they were driving a building.

After driving about 100 feet or so, the boys switched seats and Dickens reversed Big Boy back to its original resting spot under the North Poplar viaduct. Dickens continued the boys’ tour of the Big Boy, climbing up with them on the front of the steam engine.

He bent down close to the plaque on the front that says "Union Pacific 4014" and pointed to some part on the engine unseen from the ground. "See this right here? Know who made that? I did it. No, I didn't make the whole thing!"

As the boys dismounted, they walked all 130 feet past the steam locomotive, past the 14 wheels taller than them toward the exit of the train yard. They said their goodbyes to different UP staff, asking a few more questions before going through the fence and walking back to their cars.

When they finally exited the yard, the boys and their mothers said they were tired but excited about what took place.

"I was dreaming about this in my sleep!" Victor said. "And the dream came true!"

They have plans to chase the Canadian Pacific Kansas City 4-6-4 when it goes from Canada to New Mexico in a few weeks.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

For the anglers on Birdwood lake that day, the main term used for a big fish was "hog," but they also used terms like "donkey," "monster," "10…