Some things cut right through the noise of American life — the stress, the strife, the relentless pace — and grab us by the collar. Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 and its first-ever cross-country journey are absolutely one of them. I've been keeping you updated along the way, though I let the last couple of days slide. The reason is simple: I didn't want to flood PJ Media with so many train posts that readers would start mistaking it for a railfan site.
That said, I can't let these events pass without a word. Millions of Americans across this country have caught the Big Boy bug and made this a cultural event like few others, and this story deserves telling. So let's catch up.
Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific made this journey possible through a historic collaboration — two legendary American railroads joining forces to carry a piece of shared heritage to communities that had never laid eyes on it. Their pending merger likely opened the door for this partnership in the first place.
When I last wrote on this topic on June 9, Big Boy had just crossed briefly into Pa. near Conneaut, Ohio, then emerged at North East, Pa., and made a whistle-stop in Ripley, N.Y. — its very first steps on N.Y. soil as a working locomotive. I say "working" deliberately, because we should remember that workers actually built 4014 at Schenectady, N.Y., then dragged it cold out to Cheyenne, Wyo., for delivery. The locomotive rolled into Buffalo that evening for a private Norfolk Southern employee event before the public got its turn the next morning.
June 10 in Buffalo crackled with energy unlike anything of recent memory. Union Pacific ran free shuttle buses from the Walden Galleria Mall to the display site, keeping the (rather narrow) streets clear while thousands streamed in to see the locomotive from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Free admission, enormous crowds. In short, Buffalo showed up.
I must say, if Buffalo threw a celebration, June 11 delivered a masterpiece. Big Boy departed Buffalo that morning and wound southeast through Silver Springs, N.Y. Here's a shot of Big Boy departing Buffalo as it crossed Walden Avenue in Depew, N.Y., just west of Buffalo.
Then, at approximately 12:20 p.m., it crossed the Genesee River Arch Bridge at Letchworth State Park. The park charged admission, but everyone who paid got something extraordinary in return: a 133-foot steam locomotive thundering across a gorge above waterfalls in one of New York state's most gorgeous natural settings. To give you an idea of how close I was to this event, my property backs onto Letchworth park land.
"I think it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this," said Sarah Swope, who had driven all the way from Ohio with her son just to be there. Her son, Caleb, said watching a company preserve its history and share it with the public genuinely moved him.
The bridge has an interesting history behind it:
The original bridge was a wood structure, erected in August of 1852. At the time, it was the highest wooden bridge in the world, some 240 feet tall. When that structure was destroyed by fire, the Erie Railroad replaced it with an iron bridge, which opened in June of 1875. The current structure was built alongside the old one and opened in 2017. The old one was removed shortly after.
But, no, I didn’t go there. I knew the park would be a complete madhouse. Instead, I drove over to a little town along the rail line called Dalton, NY. I had family there years ago and know the area very well. As planned, I found a shady tree to park under, settled in, and waited. The train did not disappoint. I managed to get this on my cellphone from my shady perch trackside.
If you look closely, you'll notice a rail car of a slightly different vintage on the very end; it's the former private rail car of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, itself more than a small bit of our nation's history.
From Dalton, Big Boy headed west to Hornell and its historic Erie Depot Museum before calling it a night. For those unfamiliar with the line's history: the Erie Railroad owned it for nearly a hundred years before Conrail took over in the '70s. When Conrail later split between CSX and Norfolk Southern, NS inherited this line while CSX took the old New York Central Water Level Route.
On June 12, Big Boy rolled through Owego and several Southern Tier towns, drawing crowds at every stop and many grade crossings that were not stops, before reaching Binghamton for a private employee event.
Then came Saturday, June 13 — the day that may live longest in the memories of everyone who witnessed it.
Big Boy pulled out of Binghamton and steamed south toward Nicholson, Penn., and the Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct — widely recognized as the largest concrete railroad bridge in the world. Around 10:10 a.m., the locomotive eased onto the viaduct and, in a moment the crew seemed to feel deeply, slowed to a full stop right in the middle of the bridge. For roughly 15 minutes, it sat there above the Endless Mountains while thousands of spectators below craned their necks and aimed their cameras skyward. Then the whistle screamed through the valley — and the crowd erupted.
I have my own memories of the Canadian Pacific Christmas Train crossing that same viaduct years ago during the brief time they owned the line. They even had a live stage act performing Christmas numbers at stops along the route, and one of those stops was right up on that bridge.
The sound carried for miles. Big Boy’s whistle is legendary, and I have zero doubt it carried even farther.
Now, if you’ve read my earlier installments, you’ll understand why I chose this video for this part of the trip. This bridge was built in, I think, 1915 by the Erie, and has never until now carried anything that was even remotely approaching Big Boy’s, give or take two million pounds. A heck of a long time to wait for the weight testing, but it did just fine.
Cheers broke out the instant the locomotive rolled into view. Within minutes, drone footage and photographs flooded social media. Here’s one of many such examples.
Through Nicholson, Clarks Summit, and into Scranton, crowds jammed nearly every crossing and public viewing area along the route.
"I don't think it's just the enthusiasts," said Ted Mackenzie, a three-generation train chaser who had followed Big Boy all the way from Connecticut through Buffalo and down to Nicholson with his son and grandson. "It's everybody. I mean, everywhere we've gone, there's got to be hundreds of thousands of people chasing after this train. I don't know how to explain it."
I tried to explain it myself at the end of my last piece. I don't think I did it justice, either.
Nobody has published official crowd numbers, but unofficial estimates run into the hundreds of thousands.
On June 14 (as of when this is written), the journey served up several more once-in-a-lifetime moments as the train visited Andy Muller’s Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad. Among other highlights, crews ran a long-sold-out excursion on BMR trackage — territory I know well from my truck driving days. That stretch of the Pocono Mountains ranks among the toughest railroading terrain in the entire country.
It was here that folks were given what has got to be among the rarest sights today… The Big Boy and RBMN’s 2012 running together. With 2102’s 808,000 pounds and Big Boy’s 1.2 million pounds, the ground had to be shaking violently. The sharper among you will note that before they appear around the bend, 2102 has a bit of a wheel slip issue. That gives us an indication of the severity of the grade they’re climbing.So, what's next?
What kicks off Monday, June 15 at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton may turn out to be the emotional heart of the entire 2026 tour. Big Boy No. 4014 will pull up alongside Steamtown’s own resident Big Boy — No. 4012 — for a side-by-side reunion that park officials say hasn’t happened since the 1950s.
Jeremy Komasz, superintendent of Steamtown, put it plainly: “There will be lines of people waiting to see, not just the 4014, but two Big Boys next to each other. It’s a massive deal.”
How massive? Steamtown normally draws about 60,000 visitors in an entire year. Officials expect No. 4014’s 17-day residency alone could match or top that number, with the National Park Service projecting more than 30,000 visitors in just the first two public display days — a crowd bigger than the site drew at its own opening 30 years ago.
The current plan has Big Boy staying in Scranton through June 30 for public viewing and scheduled maintenance, then heading south and west through Philadelphia for the Fourth of July celebration, on to Altoona, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Kansas City, before finally pulling back into Cheyenne on July 29.
What Big Boy’s journey through Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania — more precisely, the reaction to it — has made crystal clear is that this locomotive holds a one-of-a-kind place in American life. That made writing about it not just easy — but for me, a necessity on account of the cultural impact alone, but the other factors as well. I write mostly about politics for PJ Media, but I keep one eye on culture too, especially when they intersect, and I think they have here. I said the other day and it bears repeating:
I mentioned that ALCO outshopped 4014 on December 7, 1941, and I’m certain that date and its import isn’t lost on you. Big Boy and his huge, powerful brothers played just as vital a role in America’s war effort as any weapon we put in the field — part of a mighty national push that carried us all the way to victory. He stands — and now rolls — as a powerful reminder of something I think we’ve lost sight of over the years, that being what we can accomplish together. We came together to win a war against all odds, and we pulled it off. This machine is a living tribute to that effort, those struggles, and that hard-won success. He’s a reminder of what we can be. That’s a hugely important message today.
The massive and enthusiastic crowds being drawn to these events bear that out. I’ll be posting further at the start of July after 4014 leaves Steamtown.
