One final chance to see iconic Big Boy locomotive in Colorado

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The world’s largest steam engine is scheduled to depart Colorado for Wyoming Wednesday morning.

Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 will depart from Denver Union Station back to the locomotive’s home base in Cheyenne, ending the locomotive’s “Heartland of America Tour.”

Big Boy No. 4014 will depart Denver at 9 a.m. Wednesday, but there is no public access to see the departure.

However, the legendary locomotive will make a whistle stop in Greeley on Wednesday from 12:35 p.m. to 1:05 p.m. at the 10th St. Crossing.

Union Pacific’s fall Big Boy tour began in August and took the locomotive through nine states, including Colorado. The tour also made a whistle stop in Strasburg on Monday. 

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The 1.2 million pound Big Boy steam locomotive was built in the 1940s to conquer mountains while carrying equipment during World War II. 

Big Boy No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in December 1941, built to cross the Wasatch Mountain Range east of Ogden, Utah. Union Pacific said No. 4014 was retired in 1961 after traveling a little over a million miles, reacquired by Union Pacific in 2013 and restored to service in 2019.

The Cheyenne-based Big Boy No. 4014 was last in Denver in July 2022 at Denver’s Union Station.  

Twenty-five Big Boy locomotives were built for Union Pacific, No. 4014 is the world’s only functioning Big Boy.

Eight Big Boys remain throughout the United States. Big Boy No. 4005 is on display at the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver. Big Boy No. 4004 is on display at Holliday Park in Cheyenne.

> Below: Big Boy in Strasburg in 2019: