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4-8-8-4 Big Boy w/DCC
& SoundSteam Locomotive
2025 RELEASE
Available in the additional styles
below
Click here to see more pictures of the Big Boy
Detailed
Information:
Big Boy
No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941. The
locomotive was retired in December 1961, having traveled 1,031,205
miles in its 20 years in service. Union Pacific reacquired No.
4014 from the RailGiants Museum in Pomona, California, in 2013,
and relocated it back to Cheyenne to begin a multi-year restoration
process. In 2019 UP #4014 was brought back to life. It had been
almost 60 years and multiple generations since the last time
a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy operated under it’s own power.
SURVIVING 4-8-8-4 BIG BOY PRESERVATION INFO:
4004: Holliday
Park
4005: Forney Transportation Museum
4006: Museum of Transportation
4012: Steamtown National Historic Site
4017: National Railroad Museum
4018: Museum of the American Railroad
4023: Kenefick Park
Twenty-five
Big Boys were built exclusively for Union Pacific Railroad,
the first of which was delivered in 1941. The locomotives were
132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds. Because of their
great length, the frames of the Big Boys were “hinged,”
or articulated, to allow them to negotiate curves. They had
a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, which meant they had four wheels
on the leading set of “pilot” wheels which guided
the engine, eight drivers, another set of eight drivers, and
four wheels following which supported the rear of the locomotive.
The massive engines normally operated between Ogden, Utah, and
Cheyenne, Wyo.
There are
seven Big Boys on public display in various cities around the
country. They can be found in St. Louis, Missouri; Dallas, Texas;
Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Green
Bay, Wisconsin; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Source Union
Pacific Railroad
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| 2024
Release Details: |
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Big Boy
No. 4014 departed on the “Heartland of America Tour”
on Wednesday, August 28, 2024 from Cheyenne, Wyoming, traveling
across nine additional states: Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois,
Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. The eight-week
tour concludes in late October 2024.
Union Pacific modified a total of five CA-11 cabooses to serve
as ‘Snowbuses’. Two of these had their porches fully
enclosed for this assignment. These cars were equipped with
MU and signal hoses as they were positioned in the middle of
back to back locomotives which amounted to the entire train.
The Snowbus would ferry crews to locations otherwise unreachable
in the worst weather. Recently, 25809 was included in 2023’s
Big Boy #4014 excursion train.
This special set includes UP 4014 and snowbus caboose 25809
(part of the Big Boy’s 2024 excursion train). Special box
art will be featured with a Texas motif, which is unique to
this one-time-only release.
Additionally, the 4014 will feature details and decoration to
better match its current appearance, such as polished cylinder
heads, rear tender markings, and various commemorative plaques
on the loco and tender.
BIG BOY
FEATURES:
- 2024
style new “Big Boy” font printed on smokebox door.
- Current
tender markings.
- Additional
“plaques” applied to boiler and tender.
- “Polished”
cylinder heads.
- “Polished”
paint finish
- PTC Equipment
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| PROTOTYPE
SPECIFIC INFORMATION: |
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The Union
Pacific’s Overland Route, the eastern portion of the Transcontinental
Railroad, was built west of Omaha, across Nebraska and Wyoming,
and on into Utah. The steepest grade was the eastbound climb
on the Echo Canyon line through the Wahsatch Mountains just
east of Ogden, Utah. Forty 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotives were
acquired in 1936 and 1937 to move fast freight over the grades
in Utah and Wyoming. They were rated at 4,290 tons across Wyoming,
but were limited to 3,100 tons eastbound through Echo Canyon.
Union Pacific wanted something that could make the same speeds
as the Challengers but could carry the entire 4,290-ton train
over the Wahsatch Mountains without a helper. The easiest solution
was to scale up the successful Challenger design by adding another
pair of drivers to each half of the locomotive, thus making
a 4-8-8-4.
In 1941, UP placed an order for twenty 4-8-8-4’s, numbered
4000 through 4019, with the American Locomotive Works. Each
engine cost $265,174. According to legend, an unidentified machinist
at the ALCO plant is responsible for the name “Big Boy”,
having scrawled the name in chalk on a partially completed locomotive.
The Big Boys were exactly what the railroad wanted. They were
coal burners wiht 68-inch drivers, 135,375 pounds of tractive
effort and 6,000 horsepower. They started service on the line
from Ogden to Green River, Wyoming and their operating range
soon increased to cover the lne all the way to Cheyenne.
Traffic during WWII resulted in five more Big Boys, numbered
4020 through 2024. being built in 1944. These versions were
slightly heavier than the original order due to wartime materials
restrictions. Despite the influx of diesel locomotives following
WWII, the Big Boys and Challengers remained the prime power
on the Overland Route. They aslo say service as helpers, leading
gas turbines and diesels over Sherman Hill. They remained active
through the 1950s and weren’t retired unti the early 1960s.
By then, the first twenty units had been run well over one million
miles.
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4-8-8-4
LOCOMOTIVE FEATURES:
- Boiler
backhead with full details and printed gauges
- Individually
applied piping, valves, generators, etc.
- Operating
eccentric cranks on both sides operationg in correct direction
- Headlights
and indicator number boxes (number boards) with directional
light change.
- See-through
running boards
- See-through
cab windows
- 5-pole
skew wound motor, precision machined flywheels, and multi-link
drivetrain
- Body-mounted
McHenry® operating scale knuckle couplers
- Fully-assembled
and ready-to-run
- Heavy
die-cast frame for greater traction and more pulling power
- Scaled
from prototype resources including drawings,
field measurements, photographs, and more
- Accurately-painted
and –printed paint schemes
- Bidirectional
constant LED lighting so headlight brightness remains
constant
- Minimum
radius: 11”
SOUND
EQUPPED MODELS ALSO FEATURE:
- Onboard
DCC decoder with SoundTraxx Tsunami2 sound
- Sound
units operate in both DC and DCC
- Full
DCC functions available when operated in DCC mode
- Chuff,
whistle, and bell sounds work in DC
- All functions
NMRA compatible in DCC mode
- Precision
slow speed control
- Program
a multiple unit (MU) lashup with lead unit only horn, bell,
and lights
- Many
functions can be altered via Configuration Value (CV) changes
- CV chart
included in the box
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