BIG BOY is NOT the BIGGEST? What is then?

"Biggest steam locomotive ever made." Well, not really. Let's go...

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[Alcochaser]

Jawn Henry was absolutely insane.. 600PSI Water Tube SHIP boiler. Driving a turbine providing electricity. It had AUTOMATIC boiler controls.. They built a freaking coal power plant on wheels. and of all the experimentals Jawn.. worked. Almost too well, it was infamous for doing things like pulling knuckles and even pulled a couple hoppers apart. It was put in Pusher service for that fact. It wasn't replicated because it cost a freaking fortune. But by god could the thing pull...

[FanRailer]

Long story short; the 4000 class isn’t the leader in any specific category (weight, length, horsepower, speed, etc), but it is perhaps the largest general purpose locomotive. Most other locomotives that beat the Big Boys categorically were designed to fulfill very niche roles on their home railroads and would not do well outside those roles. The Big Boys on the other hand, could get down on their knees and pound up a grade at 10-15 mph with tonnage, but then also pick up its rods on the flatlands and run 55-65 mph with that same tonnage.

[brandywineben]

I just finished my first day on the job as a rail car repair man, it’s amazing how much engineering and mechanical work goes into something as simple as a hopper car. Today I worked on getting all the hooper doors to close and lock properly and then started work on rust correction and patching. Lots of fun for those who enjoy hands on work and plenty of welding. Great for those who enjoy working outside. Has my name written all over it! Not to mention having the pleasure of watching trains go by all day.

[cooscountyrailvideos]

I’ve always said this: “4014 and her sisters are the largest surviving steam locomotives in existence”

[CaptainChaos]

It seems silly, but I think 1 reason that the Big Boy is so iconic as "The biggest" is due to it simply looking the part. No streamlining, the whole pilot assembly is massive, it has a lot of rough and tough looking external parts. Ect. It just looks like the designers said screw making it pretty and give me as much power as you can. Plus the name definitely helps.

[davidwhiting]

Essentially we are here because UP was the only railroad to put out a special documentary *specifically* for a locomotive (Last of the Giants) rather than a documentary about typical railroad operations in which UP could control the narrative. And from UP's perspective the 4000s were the biggest ever built (for their railroad).

[Alex-RealApplebees]

Ive seen Big Boys and Ive seen DM&IR Yellowstones. Both are incredible locomotives but damn the Yellowstones are chunky iron movers and I love them.

[IsaacDaBoatSloth]

people saying the big boy is the biggest forget about the russian 4-14-sometging i forgot as well as the belgian overkill 0-6-2+2-4-2-4-2+2-6-0 locomotive which was too powerful for our European couplings

[blackstonea]

One of the funniest things I've learned about Big Boys is that they have lighter axle loadings that N&W Js...

**Theoretically** we can run it at Strasburg 😂

[CAPFlyer]

I've always had issues with anyone listing the Jawn Henry as a "steam locomotive" in anything but the most general sense. It is, by definition, a Steam Turbine-Electric Locomotive (STEL), not a Steam Locomotive. How the turbine is operated doesn't actually matter in the classification. It falls under the same operating principles and in many ways has much more in common with the GTELs than a steam locomotive since the steam is not directly driving the drive axles. "Steam Locomotive" has always described what powers the driving axles, which is why the GTELs were "Gas Turbine-Electric" and most modern road engines are "Diesel-Electric".

[trainman]

The thing with engineering anything for a specific application is that you ideally want to know exactly what you want the machine to do, and then optimize it for that use. There are stronger, longer, heavier locomotives than Big Boy, of course, but to compare really any engine of similar principle between one another, when you get down to brass tacks, is an apples to oranges comparison. These machines were designed for a specific purpose, at a specific speed, in a specific environment with specific restrictions. To ask what’s the absolute fastest, or absolute strongest, or absolute anything abut any machine sort of loses the nuance of what actually matters. What actually matters, in this case to the railroad management, is what is the best locomotive for us. What is the strongest or fastest locomotive, for us, for our specific restrictions and requirements.

One excellent example of this, in my opinion, is the Milwaukee Road’s Atlantic types for the Hiawatha. Almost every other railroad went for Pacifics, Hudsons, even Northerns for similar requirements, and yes, even the Milwaukee themselves ended up budging and buying Baltics (what they called Hudsons) later on. But what mattered most to the Milwaukee wasn’t ‘whats the strongest, fastest engine on the market right now’, it was ‘what is the best design for our needs and restrictions right now’, and it just so happens that a superpowered variant of the venerable Atlantic design happened to fit the bill.

[BandanRRChannel]

Hmm...I'm not familiar enough with some of those eastern engines, but I think part of the reason the Big Boy stands out (besides excellent publicity on UP's part) was the fact that it was not only large and powerful, but could also move fast. The Big Boys were reportedly tested at up to 80 mph, although its optimum speed was much lower; looking at the list of stronger engines, most of them look like engines designed to slog heavy trains at low speeds. Its size limited its operating territory, but the Big Boy was a much more general-purpose locomotive than the others. And a "world's biggest engine" that can roar by at 60-70 mph with a long string of cars sounds more impressive than one that trudges by at 20mph with a long string of cars.

[ZergSmasher]

It's really sad that none of those other big choochoos still exist. Guess nobody was worried about preservation back in those days and just wanted the metal. Cool video as always Hyce!

[WindsorRailProductions]

I locomotive I'd love to see Run is the C&O Alleghany, I've seen them in person, Truly astounding piece of machinery.

[NorfKhazad]

Widest steam locomotive was the Virginian 2-10-10-2s, which were just over 12 feet wide to accommodate their 48" low pressure cylinders. This is outside standard clearances so they had to be shipped to the Virginian with the cylinders, cabs and running boards removed and even then could only be shipped on higher than normal clearance routes. They also had the largest diameter boilers of any steam locomotives, the highest tractive effort of any successful steam locomotive, and the largest amount of evaporative heating surface of any steam locomotive. This is all despite being built in 1919, more than two decades before the Big Boys.

[lowercherty]

The Big Boy is an awesome locomotive, and I never in my life thought I would see one that large restored.

Locally, we compare it to the Missabe Yellowstones. They were about 100 feet apart when yhe Big Boy visited the Duluth museum.

Truth be told, they overlap a lot in statistics. Big Boy has more boiler horsepower and top speed. Yellowstone has less horsepower and lower top speed, but more tractive effort. Big Boy is slightly longer because it was designed to burn low BTU western coal compared to the Missabe's eastern coal, thus it has a bigger firebox.

Both were designed to do different things. Big Boy was designed to pull trains in mountains at relatively high speeds. Yellowstone was designed to pull endlessly long ore trains at very low speeds.

Both were awesome locomotives, and I am very fortunate to see one of them running.

[catfish]

I think the one headline you flashed up at the beginning of the video actually puts it well with "Largest Successful Steam Locomotive". That seems like a neat enough way to exclude some of the weirdo prototypes.

[leightonmoreland]

And then there's the clearly most superior engine at the opposite end of the size spectrum....Montezuma! Your big boy can haul a train a mile long but can it fit in a carry on?

[tatecarlson]

One must wonder… who gave Union Pacific, PRR, and N&W unrestricted access to the whiskey? All jokes aside, I think the Big Boy is the best of the largest locomotives, but the PRR Q2s were the best of the ridged frame locomotives.

[pflash]

Norfolk and Western y6b for the win. Normal locomotive meant to haul coal trains. Such an awesome engine.