BIG BOY

So here's the reason for the expedition. Back in the 1940s the Union Pacific Railroad built 25 gigantic locomotives called Big Boys. There are now several in museums and this one, Number 4014, in working order that occasionally go out on tour. It passed through St. Louis Sunday and Monday.

The thing is simply gigantic, too big to get all of it in this picture.  132 feet / 40 meters long and 1.2 million pounds / 544,310 kilograms! See https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/4014/. It spent Sunday parked on a major railway passage on the edge of downtown, inside a fenced enclosure. I would have had to wait an hour or more in heat and brilliant sun to get in, which is beyond me these days. I took this by reaching to the top of a high chain link fence, propping my camera on top, pointing it in the general direction and hoping for the best.

Big Boy made a brief stop in the suburbs yesterday on its way west and I got some better shots.