Laramie, WY webcam with BIG BOY 4014's MAIDEN VOYAGE after being silent for over 60 years!! (take 1)

[@franciscoleonardo151]

Fantastic! Thank you Union Pacific Railroad for caring

[@ralphcolerick4939]

as a young boy in the 50s remember seing a few of the old locomotives passing through .dad said to remember it as they soon won't be around. fun to wave at engineer to blow his whistle

[@GarySmythe]

What a beautiful piece of machinery! Thank you Union Pacific Rail Road!!!

[@timothyweist2312]

I 💘 this video! This video brings me great happiness! Thanks tim!

[@53bigmikejones]

The Next biggest event to this, was the trip departing West Colton Yard, over Cajon to Barstow. That was a huge crowd of people. Now, the Girl has her legs, and strutting her stuff. Welcome back to the rails Big Boy

[@ns4270railfan]

Interesting.

[@navyspook79]

Just magnificent. How something so big and heavy can run using the power of steam. Beautiful piece of machinery.

[@ns4270railfan]

Big Boy was a decent piece of machinery. I know that back in the steam era they usually had one locomotive pulling the train. Today in the diesel era usually they have about 3 to 4 units pulling. Steam tends to be more powerful than diesel.

[@steveskouson9620]

Interesting! The connecting rods, all four of them, connect the third (from the front) driving axles, on the Big Boy. In the 844, they connect to the second axle. Wonder why? steve

[@jerrodp3572]

I'm not sure why, but I know a good number of high speed locomotives have it connected to the second axle while ones built for power have it connected to the third.

[@JonatanGronoset]

The answer is weight. A shorter rod is less weight that's thrown around at 90+ mph. Heavy reciprocating mass makes a locomotive move around a bit and at high speed that can be dangerous as it upsets the balance of the machine. I would guess it also softens the hammerblow effect on the rails and rest of the machinery, many locos also have fluted rods (I-beam cross section) to lessen the weight of the part even more.

[@steveskouson9620]

@@JonatanGronoset, that does make sense to me. About the hammerblow effect, which I'm sure you know, you CANNOT balance a reciprocating mass, with a rotating weight. On a steam locomotive, you either have the hammerblow effect, or a different front-and-back effect. That one can be mitigated, a bit, by the wright of the whole train. steve

[@Steve68C08]

Hello there! I am italian, but I love the american trains, and the USA! The Big Boy is a fantastic steam locomotive! Welcome back, Big Boy!

[@ns4270railfan]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed. Yeah, Big Boy is fantastic and powerful, but he's not the most powerful. There's an engine that ran with the C&O and Virginian railways. This engine had the 2-6-6-6 wheel arrangement named Allegheny. There's only 2 of those steamers left. One at the B&O museum and the other is at the Henry Ford museum. I doubt that one will be restored like Big Boy, but you never know. I would like to see if anyone would try to get a GG1 to run under it's own power.

[@Steve68C08]

@@ns4270railfan Yes, of course. However, I do like the Big Boy! I also like everything you can do in America; in Italy, something is being done for historic trains, but not like you!

[@ns4270railfan]

@@Steve68C08 Interesting. Yeah, America scrapped a majority of steamers, but we are still trying to preserve whats left of steam locomotives and things.

[@Steve68C08]

@@ns4270railfan From you, however, there is a greater culture of the railway than in Italy, also because your country developed thanks to railways and tramways. You have living museums of railways and tramways that we in Italy will never have.

[@ns4270railfan]

@@Steve68C08 Yeah, America has really expanded over the years of railroading. Should move to the USA and experience railroading in America.

[@starguard4122]

.. and they said it couldn't be done. Who by chance was the Lucky Engineer?

[@ns4270railfan]

That I don't know.

[@stuartadamsrailfanningvideos]

Ed Dickens, Jr.

[@yrunaked4]

why not bring out the DDA40x with it instead? can you imagine the biggest steam and diesel both at the same time??

[@wesw9586]

Yeah. If they have to bring some trashy diesel along, at least make it a historic diesel.

[@ns4270railfan]

That would be interesting. The EMD DDA40X is a diesel version of Big Boy and that would be interesting if that was with this instead of that SD70ACe trailing 3rd. Oh well, maybe the UP had other plans for the DDA40X.

[@carolsaxton839]

God bless America from the uk.

[@wishusknight3009]

What I would have loved to see, is the ALCO Century 630 they have in preservation trailing that line rather than an EMD. Those were among their greatest accomplisments.

[@organbuilder272]

Big Boy is looking at that long line of freight cars moving my. It is thinking - "Boy, I bet I can pull that load all by myself. Damn, I would really like to lock my coupler to that thing and show those puny diesels who the real hauler is. Come on guys, get back aboard, let's catch that damned train and hook up. Boy that would feel good - Full head of steam, throttle open, the whatsit gear near idle, running free again. Thunder on the high iron.

[@mylesspear]

Last time there was this much fan fare for a steam engine was 4 years ago in Roanoke. ;)

[@ns4270railfan]

Interesting. Must of been for the N&W 611, or was it for another engine?

[@thunderbird1921]

611. Southern and western VA was in 611 mania around that time . Maybe someday the King (4014) can meet the Queen (611).

[@SolarCLS6]

I live 2 hours away from Laramie and so I decided to drive down there and see all the action and it was worth it in the end It was right in front of me at around 1:30

[@jacquesblaque7728]

Just FYI. Big Boy wasn't "largest steamer ever built". FWIW, that'd be C&O's 2-6-6-6 "Allegheny", "Super Power" unit from Lima. Just the facts.

[@FFred-us9tw]

If you go by overall length and number of drivers which is how you classify "The Largest" then Big Boy is definitely bigger. The Big Boy was a 4-8-8-4 and was 132' long with it's tender. The Alleghany was a 2-6-6-6 and was only 125' long. Big Boy was larger, longer, and had a greater tractive effort, while the Allegheny had greater horsepower. But when they say "the largest" nobody is mentioning horsepower. The same way when we talk about the "Largest ship ever built" we are not talking about horsepower and the "Largest plane ever built" we aren't talking about thrust. It's about physical size. Not weight, not horsepower. Length.

[@davidconnell4439]

This dude ripped of the Virtual Railfan life stream by holding his cell phone in front of his PC monitor.

[@minh-khanguyen7209]

So...in other words, not your ninth and tenth steamers caught on camera, but steamers caught on Virtual Railfan's camera?

[@ns4270railfan]

Pretty much. My seventh and eighth steamers were also caught on Virtual Railfan's cams as well, but those were in Chattanooga, TN. Those were the Southern 4501 and 630. That was about two years ago.

[@iyeetfriesoutawindow8156]

@@ns4270railfan Recording a railcam doesn't count as catching something ever lol. You have caught neither these nor 4501 and 630.

[@ns4270railfan]

@@iyeetfriesoutawindow8156 Well, these webcams do provide the advantage of watching trains from different states without leaving your home. So with that, the Southern 4501, 630, UP 844 and UP 4014 are now crossed off my bucket list. Other units can be crossed off your list too if you just browse the webcams. Find something interesting and film, but be sure to provide credit especially if it's from Virtual Railfan.

[@nitrofumes2012]

It’s okay.. You can do your own thing and have fun! Today was a fun day! I hope you had as much fun as I did!

[@ns4270railfan]

Oh, I did. I like when I don't feel like a long drive to see trains, I just tune into one of the webcams and browse the rewinder to see if there's anything worth filming. The rewinder is up to 4 hours.

[@michaelcoker3197]

Sound the whistle more!!!!

[@vuptihansen5719]

We are watching this stuf from Denmark

[@ns4270railfan]

Interesting. I'm glad you are enjoying this.

[@KARTAVIDEO2TRAINS]

Waw Union Pasific always intrsting. Greeting from Indonesia.

[@oldpete3153]

Sorry but the quality of this video is some what disrespectful of this awesome event that so many have waited years to see.

[@ns4270railfan]

Yeah. I wanted to watch the UP George H.W. bush funeral train, but that coverage was going berserk. I was happy to see this though. I'm glad you enjoyed this take.

[@martineden1165]

No one is going to discuss that all this user did was upload some one else's video? Not even that it looks as though he played a youtube video on his computer and recorded with a 90's flip phone.

[@ns4270railfan]

@@martineden1165 Thanks for your support. Virtual railfan said that as long I provided credit, I could upload.

[@southeasternpennsylvaniara1588]

Martin Eden shut up you ungrateful ass hole. You clicked on the video so it’s your fault and you could have watched this live on virtual railfans live camera. Fuck off. ns4270railfan thank you for this video.

[@martineden1165]

Still no one is answering the question, why upload a video already uploaded? And why do it with such poor quality? What were you trying to accomplish other than getting attention to yourself?

[@40calDeathPunch]

On her way to Ogden Ut than back to Cheyenne. That would be a fun trip behind history!

[@wishusknight3009]

What I would have loved to see, is the ALCO Century 630 they have in preservation trailing that line rather than an EMD. Those were among their greatest accomplisments.