CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The world's largest steam engine will be making whistle stops in Colorado during a tour of the west and midwest this fall.
Union Pacific’s famed Big Boy No. 4014 will pass through nine states, including Colorado, on its fall 2024 tour.
The fall tour will make two whistle stops in Colorado, but won't be stopping for a longer display visit here. The whistle stops will be:
- Monday, Oct. 21 from 3:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. at the Monroe St. Crossing in Strasburg
- Wednesday, Oct. 23 from 12:35 p.m. to 1:05 p.m. at the 10th St. Crossing in Greeley
The "Heartland of America Tour" begins Wednesday, Aug. 28 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The locomotive will travel through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas before concluding its tour in Colorado.
The massive Big Boy steam locomotive was built in the 1940s to conquer mountains while carrying equipment during World War II.
Big Boy No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941, built to cross the Wasatch Mountain Range east of Ogden, Utah. Union Pacific said No. 4014 was retired in 1961 after traveling a little over a million miles, reacquired by Union Pacific in 2013 and restored to service in 2019.
The Cheyenne-based Big Boy No. 4014 was last in Denver in July 2022 at Denver's Union Station.
Twenty-five Big Boy locomotives were built for Union Pacific, No. 4014 is the world’s only functioning Big Boy.
Eight Big Boys remain throughout the United States. Big Boy No. 4005 is on display at the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver. Big Boy No. 4004 is on display at Holliday Park in Cheyenne.
