Nomad of Mid-America
The Biggest Show in the Big City
24 disc drivers, rotating thanks to the force applied from thousands of pounds of connected reciprocating steel rods, propel the world's largest steam locomotive, Union Pacific's famed 4-8-8-4 Big Boy #4014, into virgin territory, saluting the Gateway City while tiptoeing down the grade off the Mississippi River crossing of a bridge named for a man who rose to prominence around the same time the large beast was constructed: General Douglas MacArthur. 1941-vintage, stretching 132-feet from tip of the pilot to end of the tender, tipping scales at well over a cool million pounds; there is perhaps no more fitting a moniker ever dubbed for an industrial machine as the one reportedly scribbled on the smokebox of this class of behemoths while under construction on the floors of Schenectady back in World War II. To see a hot, living and breathing Big Boy pounding the high iron again, 60 years after their reign in revenue service ceased in favor of the efficiencies of internal combustion, once was merely a pipe dream. Improbable as it may still seem, fate--and Union Pacific--had other plans. Passing through on a lengthy tour of the Midwest, the spectacle has drawn hundreds downtown to witness 4014's first steps into St. Louis, the shadows of said onlookers rather conspicuous along the streets lining the tracks leading off the McArthur. Seen from a fresh vantage point, the excavator in the empty lot an indicator of recent work to remove the long-disused steel road decking of the MacArthur Bridge that had sat abandoned since 1981.
The Biggest Show in the Big City
24 disc drivers, rotating thanks to the force applied from thousands of pounds of connected reciprocating steel rods, propel the world's largest steam locomotive, Union Pacific's famed 4-8-8-4 Big Boy #4014, into virgin territory, saluting the Gateway City while tiptoeing down the grade off the Mississippi River crossing of a bridge named for a man who rose to prominence around the same time the large beast was constructed: General Douglas MacArthur. 1941-vintage, stretching 132-feet from tip of the pilot to end of the tender, tipping scales at well over a cool million pounds; there is perhaps no more fitting a moniker ever dubbed for an industrial machine as the one reportedly scribbled on the smokebox of this class of behemoths while under construction on the floors of Schenectady back in World War II. To see a hot, living and breathing Big Boy pounding the high iron again, 60 years after their reign in revenue service ceased in favor of the efficiencies of internal combustion, once was merely a pipe dream. Improbable as it may still seem, fate--and Union Pacific--had other plans. Passing through on a lengthy tour of the Midwest, the spectacle has drawn hundreds downtown to witness 4014's first steps into St. Louis, the shadows of said onlookers rather conspicuous along the streets lining the tracks leading off the McArthur. Seen from a fresh vantage point, the excavator in the empty lot an indicator of recent work to remove the long-disused steel road decking of the MacArthur Bridge that had sat abandoned since 1981.