October 14, 2024 - ProgressiveRailroading.com - 

At midday on Oct. 9, Union Pacific Railroad’s Heartland of America train pulled by the famed Big Boy steam locomotive pulled into West, Texas. 

UP’s senior management team — minus one member, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Hamann — also were stationed near the crossing to greet the train. After it stopped, they climbed aboard for a Big Boy media trip that included six members of national trade publications that cover the rail industry and several Dallas news outlets. 

The stop was one of more than three dozen planned for the 2024 Heartland of America tour, which runs from Aug. 28 to Oct. 23 through areas of Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. 

Twenty-five Big Boys were built during World War II, but only eight of the units remain in existence. One of them — No. 4014 that pulls the Heartland of America train — is considered the world’s largest operating steam locomotive. 

The steam train is highly popular with the public. For example, a stop in Rochelle, Illinois, south of Chicago on Sept. 9 drew more than 60,000 people. The crowd that gathered in West, Texas, on Oct. 9 offered more proof about the tour’s mass appeal. Although the population of the town near Waco barely exceeds 2,500, hundreds of people lined track adjacent to a downtown grade crossing. 

Read more: https://www.progressiverailroading.com/RailPrime/details/Big-discussions-on-hefty-UP-topics-aboard-the-Big-Boy-steam-train-in-Texas--73081

Photo credit: Jeff Stahl, Progressive Railroading