See the ‘world’s largest’ steam locomotive as Big Boy tour reaches Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Big Boy No. 4014, a 1.1-million pound steam engine that once played a pivotal role in carrying freight across the Wasatch Mountains, is coming home as Union Pacific’s “Westward Bound Tour” continues.

The massive steam locomotive is scheduled to arrive at the Morgan Depot (98 Commercial St., in Morgan) from Evanston, Wyoming, at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, marking its first trip back to Utah since 2019. It’ll remain in Morgan briefly before it departs for Salt Lake Central Station (340 S. 600 West, in Salt Lake City) at noon, according to the railroad company.

The train is scheduled to arrive at the Salt Lake City station at about 2:55 p.m., where it will be displayed there until 4:30 p.m. It’ll be pulled from public display before it departs Utah’s capital on Saturday for Elko, Nevada.

But the locomotive will return to the Beehive State later this month. It’s scheduled to arrive at Ogden Union Station (2501 Wall Ave., in Ogden) on July 20, where it will be on display from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’ll remain on display from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 21 before it departs for Montpelier, Idaho, on July 22.

Big Boy No. 4014 was one of more than two dozen locomotives the New York-based American Locomotive Company produced for Union Pacific between 1941 and 1944. Dubbed the “world’s largest” steam engine, each locomotive contained 25,000-gallon tanks and could hold as much as 56,000 pounds of coal; they were designed to pull freight through the mountains between Ogden and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The 133-foot-long locomotives were a fixture of the two states in the 1940s and 1950s before the last Big Boy was pulled from regular operation in 1959.

Only eight of the locomotives remain in existence, with Union Pacific restoring No. 4014 as a way to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 2019. It now operates on industrial heating oils as a part of the restoration adjustments.

The railroad company’s western tour began Sunday in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and will wrap up on July 26 as it returns to the depot where the locomotive is housed. However, the train will be back on tour toward the end of summer. The railroad company also plans a 10-state tour of states primarily in the Midwest beginning on Aug. 29 and ending in October.