Miloch
May 10th 19, 03:51 AM
Here's the Biggest Steam Locomotive in the World Flying Down the Rails
more vid at https://youtu.be/49goF9xpXYg
https://jalopnik.com/heres-the-biggest-steam-locomotive-in-the-world-flying-1834641096
UP 4014 is one of only 25 Big Boys ever built, and is the only one running
thanks to a years-long restoration effort by Union Pacific. Weighing over a
million pounds, it was originally designed to haul freight over the Wasatch
Mountains (themselves a section of the Rockies), and its approximately 6,300
horsepower could propel it up to 80 mph.
While the Big Boy is the star of my heart just by virtue of being over a million
pounds of steel moving more quickly than a million pounds of steel should ever
reasonably move, you can see in the video above that it’s joined by another
steam locomotive known as UP 844. That particular train was originally designed
for high-speed passenger service. Unlike the Big Boy, it’ll gleefully
demonstrate that speed all day when it’s unhitched from a freight train and
running free:
There’s just something about big steam locomotives hustling quickly that breaks
my brain. Those massive connecting rods along the drive wheels, each one
weighing a couple thousand pounds (per trains.com forums), just shouldn’t move
that fast. And yet they do.
If you happen to be in Wyoming this week, as I’m sure tons of normal people are,
Union Pacific has posted the Big Boy’s schedule online so you can check it out
in person.
*
more vid at https://youtu.be/49goF9xpXYg
https://jalopnik.com/heres-the-biggest-steam-locomotive-in-the-world-flying-1834641096
UP 4014 is one of only 25 Big Boys ever built, and is the only one running
thanks to a years-long restoration effort by Union Pacific. Weighing over a
million pounds, it was originally designed to haul freight over the Wasatch
Mountains (themselves a section of the Rockies), and its approximately 6,300
horsepower could propel it up to 80 mph.
While the Big Boy is the star of my heart just by virtue of being over a million
pounds of steel moving more quickly than a million pounds of steel should ever
reasonably move, you can see in the video above that it’s joined by another
steam locomotive known as UP 844. That particular train was originally designed
for high-speed passenger service. Unlike the Big Boy, it’ll gleefully
demonstrate that speed all day when it’s unhitched from a freight train and
running free:
There’s just something about big steam locomotives hustling quickly that breaks
my brain. Those massive connecting rods along the drive wheels, each one
weighing a couple thousand pounds (per trains.com forums), just shouldn’t move
that fast. And yet they do.
If you happen to be in Wyoming this week, as I’m sure tons of normal people are,
Union Pacific has posted the Big Boy’s schedule online so you can check it out
in person.
*