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PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER HENRY R. CARSTENS


VICE PRESIDENT JOHN A. EARLEY EDITOR


E. STEVEN BARRY


ASSOCIATE EDITORS WALTER C. LANKENAU OTTO M. VONDRAK


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL T. BURKHART JAMES D. PORTERFIELD


COLUMNISTS DO YOU HAVE FORTY-FOURTEEN FEVER? COMPOSITE ILLUSTRATION BY OTTO M. VONDRAK Forty-Fourteen Fever


YOU LISTENED TO THE RUMORS when others did not, believed in them when others lost faith. A Big Boy was going to be restored. A Big Boy! A four-eight-eight-four! The world’s largest ever steam locomotive! Over 130 feet long, more than one million pounds. Only 25 ever existed, all built for the Union Pacific by the American Locomotive Company in the 1940s, with only eight left. And you knew, you knew, that when the rumors started flying years ago that they were true, that the UP was indeed going to pick one of the surviving eight and restore it to opera- tion. You dreamed of this day.


When you tried to spread the good news, almost nobody else believed you. The boys who hang out down by the abandoned Podunkville depot to watch trains go by said that you were nuts. “It’s too big!” said one. “They can barely keep up their current steam fleet!” said another. You shook your head. They did not understand. They were not True Believers. They thought the coolest thing on Earth was to see a diesel wearing some special one-off paint scheme. Time passed, and you got your gentle re- venge. You spent more and more time on the Internet, and found that the rumors were — pardon the pun — gathering steam. Then on July 23, 2013, your beliefs were legitimized. “Union Pacific Railroad Acquires Big Boy Lo- comotive No. 4014...” You printed out the press release from the UP web site and had it laminated so that you could take it down to the Podunkville depot and show the boys. This is how faith rewards the True Believers. After the initial announcement, you be- came glued to the computer for the latest in- formation. There was a Big Boy Information Center, tons of Big Boy videos on YouTube, heated threads on various forums, and a whole slew of facts and figures plastered all over UP.com. There were nights you did not tuck your son into bed at eight, and did not hear your wife say good-night at 11:30, be- cause you were still huddled over the warm glow of your computer monitor, learning all


4 MAY 2014 • RAILFAN.COM


that you could to prepare for The Second Coming of 4014.


You anxiously marked your calendar with possible days that the 4014 would move from Pomona, Calif., to its new home at the UP steam shops in Cheyenne, Wyo. The day that it began its move, you wanted to be there. Not to actually be there, for you had marriage counseling appointments each week that prevented you from following the 4014’s journey in person. You had, however, learned that one magazine (that you had long ago stopped subscribing to because of its stifling obsession with diesels, diesels, diesels) was going to live stream video of the entire move. Joy!


The big day came. You were glued to the video feed like it was Geraldo Rivera report- ing live from a battlefield. You saw the 4014, live, move from its rusting place in Pomona. You saw it prepared for its journey, live! You saw it placed into consist behind those big yellow diesels, live! You saw it move over Cajon Pass in Southern California, LIVE! There were of course dark moments when the feed went down. You used these periods to file angry service outage reports to the server host, demanding they install a 4G digital signal in the wilds of Nevada. You al- so spent this time preparing the car for the inevitable chase of the 4014’s first excur- sion. Water, check. Snacks, check. Extra fuel, check. Sleeping bag, cameras, scanner, extra memory cards, laptop: check, check, check, check, check.


“Dad?” your son said, looking at you with a strange scowl on his face. “Isn’t it going to be years and years before the big steam en- gine is running?”


You only smiled and shook your head. He didn’t understand yet. It was never too ear- ly to prepare. For only the True Believers will be rewarded in Cheyenne...


Alexander B. Craghead is a writer, photog- rapher, watercolorist, and self-described “transportation geek” from Portland, Ore.


ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD THOMAS KELCEC GREG MONROE GEORGE M. SMERK WES VERNON


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