I have railroads in my DNA
I have railroads in my DNA. My maternal grandfather was a
freight manager for Pennsylvania. My mother remembers getting free tickets to
Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey because he arranged for the siding space
they needed close by the fairgrounds. A paternal great-uncle worked the yards
for the Baltimore & Ohio. That one still exists, as part of CSX. The Pennsy
was absorbed by Amtrak/Conrail in the aftermath of the disastrous merger with
the New York Central.
This week the Union Pacific 4014 steam locomotive, known as
Big Boy, made a rare foray into Texas. Of the twenty or so built in the early
1940's, only eight survive, and 4014 is the only one still in working order.
The rest are in static displays in various railroad museums.
There's all manner of stuff on the internet about Big Boy,
so of course I ventured into downtown Houston to have a look at it.
Coming from NYC, where there's a parade pretty much every
other weekend, I have to say Houston doesn't know how to handle crowds. Of
course, it doesn't help that the old Union Station, once the confluence of five
different passenger railroads, is now the merchandise shop of the Houston
Astros. Minute Maid Park was built on the site of the train yard leading into
the station.
Houston's current Amtrak station is tiny, but then it only
handles one train at any given time. The Big Boy locomotive was longer than the
building.
And yet, given the internet hype, I wasn't impressed. Even
when I managed to get up close – which wasn't too close, given that the
locomotive was fired up – it was obvious the fans of Big Boy have been doing
some digital finagling. I've seen photos where the whole thing seems massive,
and some where the name Big Boy appears on the front of the smoke box.
Which of course it doesn't. 4014 wasn't the first completed,
and the nickname was written in chalk, which probably lasted only long enough
for it to be seen and spread by the American Locomotive Company workers.
But it stuck.
Maybe it was because I couldn't really get as close as I was
able to get to Big Boy's eastern rival on static display at the Ford Museum in
Detroit. Or maybe because I was only ten or twelve when I got to get up close
to Chesapeake & Ohio's Allegheny.
That locomotive was polished, protected, and cold. The only
sound it made was a recording of its steam whistle, taken when it had been
running at track speed with a full head of steam. A piercing, banshee shriek
guaranteed to make you get the hell out of the way.
I got to hear Big Boy sound off three times, live and in
person. Once while I was standing near, twice as I was walking through the
nearby theater district to catch the bus back home.
Standing still with the fire more or less banked, the sound
was loud, but without the full steam pressure, was more of a mournful moan. The
sound of a powerful creature that had once conquered mountains, now tamed and
posed for photo opportunities.
I have to say though that it is a more classically handsome
machine than the Allegheny, which has all manner of enhancements attached to
the boiler to get more power from it. The Allegheny was massively heavier than
the Big Boy, with a different wheel configuration that made hard work of moving
itself, let alone the heavy freight it was meant to pull.
The Big Boys lasted a bit longer, but both mighty beasts
were phased out by the 1960's. 4014 is the only one in working order, restored
to burn oil instead of coal. Pulling two water tenders behind it in addition to
the standard fuel and water tender, as the change to diesel made water stops
redundant.
Though it was likely at the head of the vintage cars that
had been detached and moved up ahead of the locomotive, I'm sure there was a UP
diesel or two along, for two important reasons. One in case the 80-year-old
behemoth were to break down, but more importantly for dynamic braking. Steam
locomotives, once you get them going, aren't exactly easy to stop.
I didn't pause to listen to the lectures. I have no
hankerings to ever drive the thing, or hear about how it's done. The beauty of
a steam locomotive is in the workings of it, so many moving parts that have to
be so precise, so perfectly maintained, or an entire train might come to grief.
I don't think people traveling long distances by steam train ever realized how
often the locomotives (and crews) were changed, because of the high maintenance
all those moving parts required.
I quickly tired of the heat (I wouldn't have gone if it
weren't October) and the crying children who were also tired of the heat and
the crowds. Not to mention a motionless machine too huge to fully comprehend.
How can you tell what it's really for, when it's only standing there? There are
plenty of videos taken during these heritage tours, but I think my favorite is
an old black and white TV show which can be found split into several parts on
YouTube. Most of it was staged, of course, but there was actual working footage
shown as well.
All that being said, I think my favorite internet video was
of someone with an O scale model layout who had finally managed to acquire a
model Big Boy. Now the special thing about Big Boy is that, having such a long
boiler, curve radius could be a problem. They were built for moving freight
over mountains, not through urban areas. So the leading truck, or pilot, which
is where the cowcatcher is attached, is articulated on big hydraulic arms.
Well, this model railroader made sure the curves of their
layout were large enough to accommodate a Big Boy. The model locomotive
arrived, they set it on the tracks, hooked up some cars, and started it on its
way. Big Boy came to a curve, the pilot articulated perfectly…
and the smoke box hit the wall of the room the layout was
in.
Perhaps that O scale Big Boy is now on static display, as
well.
Karen Ovér
https://balletsandbogeys.weebly.com/golemwerks.html
Karen Ovér is back in Texas after more than a decade in New
York City. Her latest works appear in the anthologies The Book of Carnacki, The
Legion Press, Dark Yonder #6, and the forthcoming Arkham Institutions,
available late 2024 from Dragon’s Roost Press.
