BRIGHAM CITY – Hundreds of people lined the railroad crossing adjacent to the Historic Brigham City Depot located at 833 W. Forest St. to watch the Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 roll into town.
With video, still cameras, and telephones in hand they were ready as the big shiny black engine rolled in and stopped blocking all lanes of the street.
The Box Elder High School band played and people waved flags as the train whistle blew announcing its arrival.
Jim Speth hands out flags to people to wave as Big Boy 4014 arrives in Brigham city on July 22, 2024.
Jim Speth, a retired Northrop Grumman worker, was there before the engine arrived holding small American flags to hand for people to wave.
“My wife volunteered to do this, and I am the husband of the volunteer so I got roped into it,” he said. “I started with 100 flags and I’ve only got a few left to give out.”
JoAnn Cammack of Brigham City, formerly of Logan, was standing next to the tracks waiting for Big Boy to roll in.
“I’m here because I like trains,” she said. “I thought I would come down with all these other crazy people and see this one.”
Cammack said she rode a train from Salt Like to San Diego once.
“The ride wasn’t anything spectacular. We couldn’t see anything because it was a dark,” she said. “Once we got to San Diego we got on a ship and went up the coast. The ship was called the Amazing Travel.”
Jeff Whimpey from Sandy followed the train from Ogden where it stayed two days. He was going to go to Soda Springs where Big Boy 4014 will make its next stop.
“My grandpa used to drive trains and sometimes he would take me to see them,” he said. “He retired from Union Pacific.”
Whimpey knew of a group of train enthusiasts from Washington that came to see Bid Boy 4014.
Union Pacific’s legendary Big Boy No. 4014 is one of 25 built in the early 1940’s and was the world’s largest operating steam locomotive. It was built to haul 32,000 tons of cargo over mountains with it’s 7,000 horse power engines. Big Boy’s topped out at 80 miles per hour and the monster locomotive is 132 feet long and weighs 1.2 million pounds.
It was a regular fixture from Ogden to Cheyenne, Wyoming when it was running. Union Pacific retired 4014 in 1961 after over a million miles in service. There are seven of them left in museums across the country. Big Boy 4014 is the only engine of its kind still in operation.
The massive Big Boy the largest locomotive still on the tracks today showed up in Brigham City on July 22, 2024.
The 4014 is on a tour of five states this summer. The tour began in Roseville, CA bound for Cheyenne, WY.
After retiring the locomotive in 1961 Union Pacific reacquired it in 2013, refurbished it and put it back into service in 2019.
To see the train’s schedule for additional stops, go here.