Union Pacific Railroad Big Boy 4014 Steam Engine in Feather River Canyon with bridges

Big Boy 4014 steam engine of Union Pacific Railroad in Feather River Canyon California at the dual Tobin bridges and Rock Creek bridge. The historic passage of the restored steam engine 4014 down the Feather River Canyon to Oroville and Roseville California on the 2024 history tour of the UP Steam Program.

[@KeijiSuwa]

It's really cool to know 844 and 3985 both came through there over 30 years ago during Railfair '91, and now it was 4014's turn. Major props to the Union Pacific for making this happen!

[@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE]

Triple-head 844, 3985, and 4014 hauling a 5-mile freight for rail fair 2031.🤓

[@GoofyVirginian630]

It’s nice to see this beautiful canyon have a whistle echo inside of it once again after nearly 3 decades! Oh boy the memories

[@mtfgamma6257]

They hooked up the WP heritage unit....thats beautiful and a nod to the people who ran this section of railroad for decades, good job UP

[@JCBro-yg8vd]

They even put a caboose on the end of the train, this was a very dedicated move on the UP's part.

[@vickielewis3848]

Yes quite a rich rail history in the canyon. The nod did not go unnoticed. 👋👱‍♀️🇺🇲

[@Travelin2time]

Just awesome images! Thanks for sharing 👍 and new friend 🙏👌

[@theMGTS]

Hey just want to say I see your streeview submissions on google maps and I want to thank you for those, and for this. Amazing footage

[@cphilpot]

@@theMGTS thank you very much

[@scottford8736]

Beautiful shots of this trip

[@iowa_don]

Nothing like the sound of a steam train horn in the mountains!!

[@richardlarsen4444]

I have always loved the echo of a steam whistle in a canyon, thanks for the video

[@GaryA]

Beautiful country. Great backdrop for the Big Boy!

[@vickielewis3848]

Nothing like the sound of that deep throated whistle coming down the canyon. Takes you back to a different Era. 👋👱‍♀️🇺🇲

[@GaryA]

@@vickielewis3848 And Ed Dickens knows how to use that whistle like a fine musical instrument.

[@thomasplatt1301]

It is great that a railroad still has a steam program in it's budget. It is not only for the communities. It is not only for railroad photographers. It is also for the railroad employees and their families to see and bring a smile on their faces after toiling for long hours at every hour in tge day and night.

[@cphilpot]

this is a very valuable point, thank you for sharing

[@tedfisk1211]

I agree. The UP is a great railroad and it is doing this with 4014.

[@johnchambers8528]

I am a Union Pacific stockholder and it is nice to see our management still realizes the value of showing off our heritage to the public. A lot of companies forget good public relations go a long way to improve a company’s image.

[@keithmillard2527]

My daughter and elderly parents traveled from Monterey and Placerville to see the Big Boy in Portola and chase it down the canyon. I work for Caltrans and have spent several years working on the rockslides and watching the UPRR roll through there. So of course I HAD to see the Big Boy roll through, and bring my family for a once in a lifetime spectacle... BUT WE DIDN'T! We saw it briefly in Portola on Wednesday before my mom got heat exhaustion, but debilitating sciatica put me in the Reno ER on Thursday morning as Big Boy left Portola. I was absolutely crushed! This video shows exactly what I wanted to see in person and show my family (along with all my work sites in this beautiful canyon), and I'm overjoyed to see that you captured it in great style and put together a great, unnarrated video for us! I am extremely grateful! 🙏🏻

[@cphilpot]

Thank you so much. High hopes that you and family will recover quickly find more train days in the future

[@OhRiverFreedom]

So sorry for you and family. So glad for this excellent video for you. Please… all be well.

[@adelechicken6356]

Somewhere, some model railroader or club has a small part of this beauty set up in a train room, and has spent hundreds of hours making it as close to the reality as possible. My husband was one and especially loved making scratch built structures for his HO set.😊

[@oxhog5925]

I asked to have the 1983 Western Pacific heritage unit added to the consist for the run through the FRC and they did!

[@tinlizzie]

Big Boy is still holding his place in the working train world!

[@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE]

Some of the most beautiful scenery yet.

[@glynluff2595]

It is a very glorious beast to transatlantic eyes and splendid scenery to view it against; moreover that voice! Excellent video and sound giving wonderful effect to us in the U.K. Magic!!

[@airailimages]

Nicely done. Great train in great terrain. Thumbs up!

[@xxkc007xx2]

Loving the whistle!

[@Lakeside1943]

Very nice video, showing the beauty of this wild canyon and the greatness of the impressive Behemoth.

[@skimmer8774]

Beautiful scenery with the awesome 4014. Fantastic pictures.

[@gwpuffinstuph3868]

Watching this gave me goose bumps.

[@vickielewis3848]

Very cool. Love that deep throated whistle. Gets me every time. 👋👱‍♀️🇺🇲

[@yannbzhtrip]

Whaoooo! Great views for a beautiful locomotive! 😍😍😍😍

[@williammetcalf7239]

That train is a work of art and enginuity. Fabulous. I got see it up close in Roseville where it did a layover at the Roseville yard. Amazing loco.

[@ThatBIGTRAINGuy]

Beautiful shots there. Thank you!

[@stephenmerrin9442]

This is absolutely fantastic.. My mother so loved steam locomotives and when we were kids growing up would chase them with us in the car everywhere she could find one. She is no longer with us, but I know she would’ve absolutely loved this video.❤❤❤

[@meanderingwithmuddypaw]

Way to go, Craig! Thanks for that action shot! I'm going to go see Big Boy in Roseville tomorrow. Can't wait! - Muddypaw 🐾

[@moryan6447]

So happy to hear and see this! I’ve loved them since I was a small child when I heard their rattles and whistles at the back of our property when Monrovia, Calif was still fairly rural with homes on acre properties.

[@dorisbuchmann4164]

Love the whistle. Miss hearing the trains, since we moved away!

[@lawrencehudson9939]

I sure wouldn't want to see 4014 in Feather River Canyon without bridges. No seriously a very nice video.

[@JFinnerud]

😅

[@2quintly]

Super nice, just like she belonged there.

[@benpluta6187]

Love the freight cars with no grifidi and the caboose!

[@jimbridge4166]

Retired UPRR conductor here. Nice work.

[@averageguy7136]

Very Cool video. I love that they put the WP heritage unit in the consist for this route.

[@jasonj6275]

great captures Craig

[@RouxsTube]

Great vid !! It was so fabulous to see it in the canyon. That steam whistle !!!

[@Pappaoh]

What great footage! Thanks for posting

[@WasatchGarandMan]

Great seeing it over the Feather! That shot starting at 3:00 is just amazing. Great job!

[@charles-t2u]

Very nice compilation, and so much cooler watching this from home instead of in person. I was at the Tobin bridges, and walked up the gravel road to the far right of the screen at about 3:20 of the video. There were a couple of dozen people there and we got to see the engine stop directly in front of us. Very lucky. Great view, but but man was it hot and basically no shade to be found! And all those construction segments on highway 70 in the canyon made it challenging to get around. I'm impressed that you managed it.

[@cphilpot]

So glad you were there. I’m glad some folks were allowed up at rail level by the bridge.

[@deanchapman6425]

As a WP brat I am old enough to remember WP compound mallies making some of there last runs before diesels took their place. My dad and his brothers worked for WP from the early 30's till into the mid 60's unfortunately they all passed within a couple of yrs. I even do a switchmans course in 70 but was not enthusiastic about running in the snow. We lived in Oroville during all this time and watched the construction of the dam make big changes to the WP. Like many other appreciate greatly UP keeping the name and logo alive. Great memories of my wasted youth.

[@cphilpot]

thank you for sharing your family story. So much history

[@tigertiger1699]

Beautiful 🙏🙏🙏

[@Brother_D_therail]

Great footage you captured there Craig! UP chose an appropriate diesel helper too, WP 1983 😊👍

[@plainsman]

Indeed - adding that particular helper was great choice.

[@eva.cassidy]

They added that since they were visiting the WP Museum in Portola CA.

[@davidng2336]

This is all the things that can happen now that 4014 has its own PTC

[@ensnipe2000]

Nice video, looks very beautiful there

[@w9gb]

Nice to see WP #1983 in helper service, with its Feather logo.

[@GarySmythe]

Awesome, they had a caboose at the end!

[@paulm.newitt3246]

This is beyond awesome! WOW! Thank you SOOO Much!!

[@MtnMike-ok3ss]

Probably the most Scenic part of the entire Feather River Railroad portion is the Pulga Bridge with BIG BOY !

[@gsa1876]

Thank you for sharing this I was wondering how it looked coming through the canyon.

[@douglaskaiser9933]

Rode these tracks on the Family's last western Train trip, Frisco to Denver ... sometime in late '60s.

[@seanpacificrailroad3700]

This is fantastic thank you for sharing 👍😎🚂🇺🇸

[@RickyJr46]

Steam, steel, and forestry!

[@terin1862]

4014 and 1983 together! 👍

[@tedmaas3588]

Outstanding video!!!

[@bobbreit5244]

I live near the tracks. I hope I get to hear it this morning.

[@jhgeorg]

Nice to see a train without graffiti.

[@jenniferroberts7581]

Awesome video!

[@longrider42]

Well I wondered if they would not have to put the Diesel engine back into the train. Most likely for braking and maybe a push up a hill or two. I had a feeling it would be needed. Oh, and I live in Cheyenne, and I watched the Big Boy roll out on June 30th.

[@Railfan-uf9mw]

Awww man holy shit I’m sure everyone was like OH My God this thing this AWSOME piece of history big GIANT OHHH THE WHISTLE DAMN if only I would’ve been there recording it on my phone

[@cphilpot]

There was a scrum and sounds like you would have fit right in

[@railyardfilms6491]

Excellent 👍👍👍👍👍👍😊😊😊😊😊

[@LeeWilliams-ou4hi]

OK, so when is the 2025 BIg Boy 4014 calendar going to be available ? Union Pacific Super Stars of Steam 4014 & 844. Sure would be nice to someday see 5511 back on the rails.

[@briansmith8967]

Nice video! Did the train slow down a little when it went over the bridge?

[@cphilpot]

Engine stopped just on the West side of bridge briefly.

[@transmaster]

The 4884’s never made it to these tracks, you are watching a historic first. The Big Boys were only used in Wyoming, and a short distance into Utah. This is a glorious sight.

[@ZEDU657]

Great footage! What a wonderful setting! What is the location of the two bridges? I would like to go there for some photographs.

[@cphilpot]

This is Hwy 70 in the Feather River canyon at Tobin.

[@ZEDU657]

@@cphilpotI found and pinned it on Google Maps. Beautiful area, thank you!

[@spikespa5208]

Anyone know what, if anything, is in the hopper and box cars?

[@trainsholli]

Do you know around what time it will arrive in Ogden on the 19th?

[@bradleyjanes2949]

Wp emd 😎

[@jacksalvin364]

On the former Western Pacific Railroad line.

[@bradleymcwilliams6348]

The only train in CA without being tagged. What's the odds of it making out of the state unscathed? Thanks!

[@barrygreenstein2816]

Are the second two cars oil and water?

[@garyjones9023]

Very nice! +1

[@fritz46]

Fantastic layout, it almost looks real. But the freight cars need more rust and graffiti!

[@stephenvanwoert2447]

Give them a few unprotected weeks for the graffiti. Or days.

[@TRAINMANCWCLANCY]

🤔 I don't believe it why would they say they can't go through the Columbia River route in Oregon 😑 and that proof right there in feather river canyon wow UP steam club well any who fantastic catches of U.P 4014 😮

[@tigertiger1699]

Why do I get the impression the diesel is doing the work..

[@doughuffman5790]

Why is the diesel back?

[@oxhog5925]

It's needed for dynamic braking to help save the 4014's monumentally expensive brake shoes

[@davidwhiting1761]

Probably for additional braking if needed. It's fine to have some redundancy for safety's sake. I'd expect a helper for her return journey over Donner Pass with the line's 2.4% descending grade, especially as she should be hauling a passenger excursion for the trip between Roseville and Sparks. It's one thing to have her charging up a grade unassisted; it's another to get her back down the grade safely. Either use the dynamics like modern crews are used to doing or, in according with SP's Mountain Division Special Instructions from 1955, use retainers on a least half the passenger cars on the excursion and even more if the conductor and engineer both feel it necessary. As much as UP wants to preserve the parts on 4014 so they can operate it for a long time to come they probably also don't want to cause excess wear to the wheels of their nice heritage coaches, either. But that's just my guess.

[@rd4660]

Awesome video, that whistle is such an emotional sound. Just curious, what fuel are they using? Is it still coal or have the environmental police made them change to something else??

[@davidwhiting1761]

@@rd4660 Where have you been since 2019? She's been burning oil since she was brought back into service. UP has no interest in running a coal-burning locomotive, and not because of some sort of environmental policy - it's partly because coal burners cause fires. Do your research and you'll find that not long after 3985 was first brought back into service as a coal burner she caused a bunch of fires from ash and cinders flying out of the exhaust while on tour in Utah which caused considerable damage, so for years 3985 was restricted to just running between Cheyenne and Laramie purely because there wasn't as much that could catch fire along the right of way. She was only allowed to go further abroad when she was finally converted to oil in 1990. For years afterwards if anyone ever asked if UP would restore a Big Boy UP would always respond with "We have no interest in running a coal-fired locomotive". There are other advantages to burning oil over coal. For one, you can run further on a tender of oil than you can on a tender of coal. Second, changes to the firing on an oil burner affect change in the boiler faster than a coal burner, so you can provide more steam consistently when you need it on the road and control the fire to keep the safeties from popping when not working hard or at a stop. As an added bonus you don't need to dump the fire after a run or bank the coal for an overnight stop. Third, it's getting harder to source coal for steam locomotives these days as the world moves away from coal-burning power plants and moves toward either nuclear power or renewable energy. Whatever coal is available is probably not the quality you need to properly fire the locomotive or would be too "dirty" and make a lot of soot and smoke. This leads to reason number four: All that soot is gritty and when the locomotive is working hard and producing so much extra smoke and soot it gets into the moving joints and lubrication lines and causes those moving parts to wear out faster, meaning the loco will need to go in for service sooner and parts will either need to be repaired or all-out rebuilt and replaced more frequently, making running something as big as 4014 more expensive just in maintenance costs. None of that is an issue when you burn with oil - there's no coal smoke or soot to come out of the exhaust and get into the moving parts. It's not just environmental politics making these decisions - there's also practical reasons which by far predate the environmental policies that have come about recently, dating all the way back to the steam era (plenty of railroads including the SP and ATSF predominantly burnt oil with their steam locomotives). Goes without saying but reason number 5: California banned coal burning locomotives back in 1999, and part of this tour is in California so... 4014 was restored in 2019, and Ed Dickens put out several videos in the years during the rebuild documenting 4014's restoration including the conversion to oil. Are you seriously admitting that for about 5 years of tours and watching videos on KZbin with as much publicity as 4014 gets wherever she goes that you never once noticed that 4014's been burning oil? Did you even look at the tender she's pulling in the video? All you'd have to do is look and see there is no coal pile. She's pulling 3985's oil tender (repainted to 4014) because 4014's tender wasn't ready in time and when 3985 went to Silvis 4014's original tender went with her and part of the rebuild at Silvis is converting that tender to burn oil.

[@cphilpot]

@@davidwhiting1761 thank you!

[@stephenclickard9428]

The big guy says I’m commin’ can you hear me?

[@mattywho8485]

I'm surprised California will let them run that old train, what with the emissions and all.

[@spikespa5208]

In this case CARB can take a flying leap.

[@johnchambers8528]

I would think as a historic locomotive not in regular service it would be exempt from any regulations for new engines. If not I feel the railroad would still invoke that the engine and train as engaged in interstate commerce so again any state only rule would not apply.

[@srstrand01]

Somehow the diesel engine doesn't fit in...

[@sp9392]

Awesome video!