The Old West

A Mournful Whistle Recalls the Storied Past of a Massive Steam Locomotive

~ adriennecohen221 ~ Leave a comment

I made my way as close as possible to the railroad tracks earlier this month, as eager as children half my height, for a close-up view of Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” 4014 steam locomotive. It was at rest in the rail yard in North Little Rock, a scheduled stop along its 2024 Heartland of America Tour. The route takes it through nine states, with “whistle stops” in more than three dozen different communities. You might also see it passing through the countryside, but visitors are admonished to stay “at least 25 feet back” as the massive locomotive travels along the rails. View the route and tentative schedule.

This relic from the glory days of transcontinental railroad commerce and loaded freight trains is the last operating steam locomotive of 25 built between 1941 and 1944 for the Union Pacific Railroad.

The public was invited to view the glistening black behemoth from 5 to 7 p.m. on September 15, during an overnight visit to one of the railroad company’s major modern servicing facilities. The facility is busy 24 hours a day, sorting freight cars that arrive and depart from across the country. It was a cloudy, grey afternoon, but hundreds of people, young and old alike, turned out to see the historic steam locomotive. The round-trip “rolling tour” began August 28 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and will end back in Cheyenne in late October.

Some visitors parked blocks away, but a walk over uneven gravel and through a sea of mud puddles did not dampen their enthusiasm. Even the unrelenting drizzle was just a minor annoyance. Ed Dickens, senior manager of Union Pacific Heritage Operations, is the locomotive’s chief engineer for the tour. From all appearances, he was having as much fun as the viewers, waving to children and snapping his own photos of the crowd. Occasionally, he sounded the mournful whistle, and laughed as young children covered their ears.

People of all ages stood transfixed, the younger ones beside me pushing against the barricades. Many of them had probably never before been close enough to even wave at a train. There were aging men and women with canes and walkers, and others in wheelchairs. A layer of colorful umbrellas formed a spotty canopy above the heads of the crowd. Children sporting hoodies and ear-to-ear smiles clasped grown-up hands, and toddlers perched expectantly on their fathers’ shoulders.

A service crew was busy at work, even as raindrops continued to fall. The engine belched billows of steam into the sky and more steam drifted between the wheels along its underbelly.

A Return to Days Long Gone

Some of us who grew up watching freight trains rumble through small towns still love the “choo-choo” sounds of the wheels as much as the “melodies” of the whistles. Note: This recording is a blast of the whistle on another steam locomotive in Union Pacific’s Heritage Fleet, Number 844, the only one never to be officially “retired” from active service. Smaller than the Big Boy, it is used to pull expedition trains from its home base at the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

I have numerous train-related memories. My husband, who grew up in Maine, remembers placing pennies on railroad tracks near a rented summer beach house, waiting for a train to pass, and then retrieving the flattened, elongated pieces of copper.

One of my grandfathers completed a three-year apprenticeship as carman for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway Co., to “Puget Sound—Electrified” in April 1925. Today that certificate hangs on my office wall, along with a photo of yet another early steam locomotive. I confess that I still wave at trains, although I typically don’t expect a return wave from the engineer. Sadly, the brakemen on those cabooses of long ago have also now disappeared. Most trains no longer even have a caboose; they have been replaced by electronic small-box sensors.

I remember passenger trains as well as long-haul freight trains, and I sometimes yearn for those days of “slow travel,” observation cars, and meals served by white-gloved waiters in dining cars with linen tablecloths and distinctive china, silver, and sturdy glassware. Seeing this locomotive, the last and largest of its type still in use anywhere in the world, represents a step back into much-loved childhood memories for me.

The trains that now speed along tracks adjacent to the nation’s highways no longer have the same appeal, but freight trains still serve the needs of modern commerce and transport our country’s freight. The market is expected to reach $400 billion in 2024, with growth to more than $510 billion by 2029. There is also a growing resurgence in railroad tourism in some parts of the United States, and travel by high-speed rail in other countries is increasingly popular.

Saved from the Scrapheap

The Big Boy is the largest articulated steam locomotive ever constructed, and it was designed specifically to pull heavy loads over the steep grades of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. Constructed by American Locomotive Company, with development input from Union Pacific, the Big Boy was designed to handle heavy freight loads, conquer the mountain grades of the routes through western mountain states, do it all at a reliable speed with no need for an auxiliary engine, and deliver the goods to western destinations on schedule.

Twenty were delivered to Union Pacific and placed in service in 1941, largely in support of the second world war effort. Another five were delivered in 1944, but the last of the Big Boys was pulled from service by 1962. Number 4014 completed its last revenue run in July 1959, and was officially retired in December 1961 after 17 years of active service, exactly 20 years after its first run.

Union Pacific launched a five-year-long restoration of Big Boy 4014 when the company reacquired it from a museum in California in 2013. The locomotive was moved from southern California to Cheyenne, where it sat idle for nearly two years as plans were completed for its restoration. Not only did the facility require expansion and updating to accommodate the Big Boy, but the locomotive had to be totally disassembled. In some cases, new parts were fabricated, and it was converted from coal to run on more efficient, less expensive diesel fuel.

Otherwise, however, the locomotive has been restored to its original design and configuration.

In the spring of 2019, a test-firing was successful, and Number 4014 moved “under its own power” for the first time in nearly 60 years. The revitalized Big Boy locomotive made a first test run the next evening from Cheyenne to Nunn, Colorado.

The rest, as they say, is history. And now, the public can share that history on annual runs that typically attract thousands all along the designated routes.

When the restoration was complete in 2019, Big Boy 4014 embarked on an inaugural tour to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s completion. The locomotive was then placed in excursion service as a member of the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet. Today, it is said to be Union Pacific’s primary public relations tool. Earlier this year, the locomotive completed a “Westward Bound” tour to California, passing through five states and culminating with an excursion for paying guests. Such special events help underwrite the railroad’s museum operation.

Who Cares about an Old Steam Engine?

Although Big Boy locomotives were said to be capable of speeds up to 80 miles per hour, there is no confirmation that they ever actually traveled that fast. They typically ran well under 60 mph, often chugging along at a much lower speed, but they did so reliably and consistently for nearly two decades.

Many of them traveled a million miles or more. Number 4014 logged 1,031,205 miles during its years in service.  Astoundingly, the Big Boy locomotive is nearly 133 feet in length and weighs 1.2 million pounds. The primary advantage was its power. It is still robust and, for all its size and power, it is able to maneuver mountain curves because it is articulated, or “hinged” at strategic points.

This is no ordinary engine. And a lot of people care. I have fond memories of traveling by train both in this country and abroad, but the passenger trains I remember, with their sleek diesel engines, are a totally different breed from the steam locomotives that served as the iconic workhorses of the railroads.

Big Boy 4014 is the only one of 25 built that is still in operation. And it is the largest operational steam locomotive in the world today.

Ed Dickens of the train’s crew notes that the locomotive, with a weight of approximately 600 tons, “runs like a Swiss watch,” even though it can easily pull a train five miles long on flat ground. He says that it was designed to be simple to operate, adding that “you drive by the seat of your pants – you smell the brakes,” and the crew becomes familiar with the sounds.

If you’re interested in learning more about Big Boy 4014, and the history of the steam engine era, tune in to this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage on You Tube. You’ll love it!

Finally, if you’re interested in seeing Big Boy 4014, its home base is in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when it’s not on tour. Other Big Boy locomotives can be viewed in Denver CO, St. Louis MO, Scranton PA, Green Bay WI, Frisco TX, and Omaha NE, just across the river from the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa. If you’re a fan of old trains, though, and you go to Council Bluffs, plan to spend the better part of a day there. And you’ll leave wanting to return.

Once Upon a Frontier

~ adriennecohen221 ~ Leave a comment

In December 2023, Old West Magazine published a list of the “The Top 10 True Western Towns of 2024,” as it has annually for nearly two decades.

Cody, Wyoming, topped the list this year, but others include:

  • Miles City, Montana
  • Lubbock, Texas
  • Abilene, Kansas
  • The Dalles, Oregon
  • San Angelo, Texas
  • Deadwood, South Dakota
  • Tombstone, Arizona
  • Fort Smith, Arkansas, and
  • Prescott, Arizona

Some of these Old West towns have made repeated appearances on the magazine’s annual list. I have lived in several of these legendary locations — Santa Fe, NM, Fort Worth, TX, and Miles City, Montana. And I have visited many more.

Many towns across America claim to be throwbacks to earlier times, dripping with the romance and spirit of discovery that characterized a new and uncharted land.

Most have become thoroughly integrated with modern life. The best, however, retain and celebrate their history as towns on the frontier of a fresh and growing America. Their residents may no longer subscribe to the lively lifestyles of the past, but they are also unwilling to completely put the past behind them. I find that refreshing.

The West Lives On

Last month, I visited an Arkansas frontier town, Fort Smith, for the first time.

Fort Smith has also made True West’s list more than once, and its past may be more colorful than most. The facts testify to its importance on the edge of the American frontier.

Situated on the banks of the Arkansas River and just a bridge away from Oklahoma, Fort Smith is a small town by any standard, but its history is long and varied. It was where “the Hanging Judge” of Old West renown held court — 83 men were hanged on the orders of Judge Isaac Parker between 1873-1896, and reconstructed gallows now occupy a prominent position at Fort Smith’s National Historic Site. Displays are housed in a former military barracks and the city’s impressive historical museum occupies a one-time Army commissary.

The city’s Visitors Center is currently in a former brothel, Miss Laura’s Social Club, and tours of the restored house are offered to the public on a regular schedule. A modern Visitors Center, however, is slated to open in 2025.

Despite its status as the third most populous city in Arkansas, with approximately 90,000 residents, Fort Smith retains its small-town appeal. Its boundaries encircle an area of about 63 square miles, but its downtown core consists of only a few easily walkable blocks.

The city played a contested role in the Civil War and fell under the control of both the Confederacy and the Union at different times. Today a National Cemetery is located near the center of Fort Smith’s historic downtown district. Walking among the headstones is an eye-opening lesson in American history.

Building a New History

Present-day Fort Smith also has much to recommend it, not the least of which is the United States Marshals Museum that opened July 1, 2023, after a decade of planning. It occupies a dramatic riverbank site only a mile or so from the city’s historic downtown.

If, like me, most of what you know about U.S. marshals has been gleaned from television and movies, visiting this museum is akin to a refresher course in reality. The modern building at first seems a bit incongruous on the river, sandwiched between a bridge that leads to Oklahoma and an RV campground. One wonders initially what this architecturally stunning building, set starkly between large boulders and clumps of prairie grass, can be. Closer to the bank, a horse and rider seem to stand watch.

Upon approach, however, the steel and glass building morphs into a stylized star – the badge of the U.S. Marshal. A single American flag directs visitors to the building’s entrance.

The museum tells the story of a small band of legendary men and women charged since 1789 with “keeping the peace and carrying out justice” in the United States. And it tells that story in an unparalleled way.

The Trail of Tears

Also in Fort Smith, there is a viewing platform on the river, not far from the city’s modern convention center, that marks the spot where the trail ended for native tribes who were forcibly removed from their lands east of the Mississippi. Although there were several routes to the designated “Indian Lands” in the West, the years-long relocation of thousands of indigenous tribal members is known as the “Trail of Tears.”

For some, that trail ended at Fort Smith. Indian Territory lay just across the Arkansas River, in what was to become Oklahoma. Last year, I stood near the bank of the Mississippi River not far from St. Louis, at a point where a marker now designates a beginning point of the Trail of Tears. Seeing both the beginning and end of that trail was a sobering experience.

My recent travels have opened my mind to the variety and wealth of Arkansas history, and to the reasons for its nickname as the Natural State. One need not travel far afield to learn more about this unique region.

The City That Holds My Heart

Old West towns beckon to me. To this day, each retains a kind of defiant swagger that sets it apart from other historic American cities, and each one has a distinctive mystique.

Some years of my early childhood were spent in Miles City, along with many summer vacations to visit grandparents. Miles City was then, and in some ways still remains a quintessential frontier town. Founded in 1877, the year after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, it was adjacent to Fort Keogh, at the confluence of the Powder and Yellowstone Rivers in eastern Montana. The fort’s reason for being was as a military outpost to urge local tribes — the Lakota and Crow — to resettle on the state’s designated reservations.

As an active military installation, the fort had a storied history up to and including World War II. Miles City in its early days supplied liquor and services for the troops. Allow your imagination free rein; Miles City began life as a rowdy town.

The fort was deactivated in 1924 to become an agricultural research station. Miles City was an early railroad hub, with both the Milwaukee Road and the Great Northern Railway running through the town. And, for decades, motorists on both U.S. Highways 10 and 12 passed through Miles City. But in the latter part of the 20th Century, Interstate 90 and its I94 spur from Billings to North Dakota were constructed. The interstate bypassed Miles City, and it fell into decline as passenger train travel also diminished. The city’s airport had insufficient runway to handle jets, and most reasons for visiting disappeared.

However, to this day, Miles City clings to the pride that perpetuates its rowdy past. Some of that raucous past manifests each spring, during the third full weekend of May, at the legendary Bucking Horse Festival, held since 1951. The weekend celebration is a spirited event that includes horse races, rodeo events, and visits to Miles City’s throwback saloons. It is grounded in the history of the military and westward expansion, and characterized by high spirits and daring antics by contemporary cowboys. It is still a primary source of rodeo stock for the entire country and the annual rodeo and sale is one of those American “folk festivals” that one really must experience in person to believe.

More West to Explore

In just a few days, I will embark on another journey that will take me through several Old West towns in Kansas on the way to a week of R&R at a mountain cabin in Estes Park, CO. 

Kansas is another state with a rich frontier history, and I look forward to exploring a bit more on this quick journey west, visiting Fort Scott, Wichita, and Dodge City along the way. On this road trip, my husband and I will drive a few miles along Route 66 in eastern Kansas, and then return to the past further west as we follow part of what was once the Santa Fe Trail. I wrote before about Kansas in 2022 when I visited several of the small towns in the southeastern corner of the state that we will pass through again on our way west.

On the way back to Arkansas, we plan to revisit Santa Fe, which we called home for nearly two decades, then will see friends in Lubbock and the Dallas/Fort Worth area before returning home. My plan is to return and write more about these legendary Old West towns that are now redefining themselves as unique places in the modern world.

I hope you’ll join me as I continue to travel and find interesting and unusual places to visit. I urge you to venture out on your own as you have time — to your state’s parks, historic sites, regional festivals and the many small towns, lakes, streams, mountains or shores that surround you, wherever you may live.