During the period September 28 – October 6, 2019, several friends and I traveled to Wyoming, Utah and Nevada to experience and photograph UP 4014, “Big Boy” as it began what Union Pacific termed its “Great Race Across the Southwest.”
Among the friends who coordinated their travel plans for this trip were Ad van Sten (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Michael Allen (Michigan, USA), Matthew Malkiewicz (New Jersey, USA) and Thomas Schultz (California, USA).
Ad van Sten flew into Denver, rented a car, and chased, one‐way, as far as Salt Lake City, Utah. Thomas, Michael and Matthew each flew into Las Vegas where they rendezvoused on Saturday, September 28, 2019. From Alamo, a GMC Acadia AWD SUV was rented, which proved to be comfortable, reliable, spacious and, on many gravel roads in Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, very practical. On more than one occasion our travels took us down gravel roads listed on State highway maps as legitimate county roads, but which included, on occasion, steep grades, larger rocks (where the high ground clearance of our GMC Acadia was appreciated) and, on one occasion east of Caliente, Nevada, the need to ford Clover Creek several times.
On Saturday, September 28, Matthew, Michael and I departed Las Vegas and drove as far as Provo, Utah, where we spent the night. The following day, Sunday, September 29, we drove north, via Heber City, to Echo, where the remainder of the day of Sunday, September 29, was spent reacquainting ourselves with various potential photo locations between Uintah, Utah and Green River, Wyoming. This report includes images from most of the locations visited by us. Unless otherwise noted, all images were recorded by Thomas Schultz. Many of Michael Allen’s image were nearly identical to those recorded by me. Ad van Sten has authored his own report. Matthew publishes on‐line images he records: https://www.losttracksoftime.com/
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Photo gallery
Beitrag vom Mai 2019: „Erste Fahrt eines Big Boy nach 60 Jahren!“
Ein weiterer Beitrag:
Observations on following the Big Boy.
I hadn’t planned on going out west to see the Big Boy, but after my wife drove to Wisconsin to see it while I was visiting my brother in New York, I wavered. When Tom Schultz and Matthew Malkiewicz invited me to come along for the next leg of the Big Boy tour, I decided to see what the fuss was all about.
Now that I’m back, I’ve been thinking about the Big Boy trip and how my expectations changed as we went along. I started out feeling that the extra water tenders and the diesel in the consist just wouldn’t be the real deal. As I saw how amazing the locomotive was and how the crowds of regular people turned out to see it, my perspective changed 180 degrees.
“Like you, over time the entire Big Boy experience has set in for me also. I was originally not crazy about going to see it, but now two trips in I am wanting and needing more. Way beyond the photos captured, it’s the entire ball of wax of being there. Union Pacific has hit a major homerun in the community public relations department – I hope they realize that.” – Matthew Malkiewicz
From the families that came down the dirt road to watch the train at Mona to the Peruvian sheepherder on the Altamont grade to the 84 year old back country jeep explorer and the crowd at Las Vegas, it just goes to show how wide the appeal is of that locomotive.
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