Worlds Largest Locomotive? A Big Boy In The Land of The Gila Monster: Union Pacific #4014 in Arizona

Hey Guys, it's Big Diehl here again with something from the archives? It's footage I've been sitting on since 2019 of Union Pacific's 'Big Boy' #4014 as it stretched its legs across Arizona on its 'Great Race Across The Southwest' tour. So, for this video, we’re along side the former Southern Pacific’s Sunset Route where we catch Union Pacific’s number 4014, the “Big Boy” this tour, which took it from Cheyenne to Los Angeles, through Tucson, onwards to El Paso and ultimately to San Antonio before swinging back to Denver and home to Cheyenne. Most of the footage here was shot by my Dad, but thanks to my own idiocy of having it put on a stabilizer and having the camera zoom in and out, well, the footage was quite bouncy… Sorry guys, my fault.

We'll follow from Tucson at the Irvington Power Plant as it leaves Yard Limit (YardLimit, Yard Limits? No, there's no YL here as it's just main line, unless you're thinking of the old Pacific Fruit Express Yards, aka, 36th Street Yard in Tucson along side Aviation Parkway) and onwards to Mescal where the Southern Pacific and the El Paso & Southwestern met and interchanged, and today is the end of the 'split rail' between Vail Arizona and here. Mescal and its distant signal is located just to our right/behind us. Next, we'll hop over Benson and the San Pedro River to near Tully and Sibyl (there used to be a Stuckey's here, no Pecan Logs today). From there we'll hop over Dragoon Pass and look back towards Cochise Stronghold as the BigBoy pulls into Willcox (Wine! Apples! Rex Allen! Big Diehl!, yeah, I"m from here). After leaving Willcox we'll hit up as it climbs Razo / Railroad Pass, and down into Bowie (Boo-eee, not Bow-ee, like Boo-Urns, not Ziggy Stardust). Oh yeah, and at the end, you'll have to see my face as I explain why I've decided to call this (and my favorite photo from the trip) 'Big Boy in the Land of the Gila monster'... Spoiler, it's not about the giant lizard.. But instead, I'll show you the Southern Pacific AC-9 'Yellowstone' class of engines, the 2-8-8-4 behemoths that were reversed 'Cab Forwards', (so you mean normal locomotives?) that were known as Espee's "Cab Behinds" but another nick name for them was 'Gila monster' which looking at them wouldn't be hard to say, and the fact they ran alot south of the Gila in the Gadsden Purchase in Baja Arizona, El Paso, and into Tucumcari (Tonight!... Route 66 joke) via the El Paso and Northeastern.

Honestly, if you've read this far into the description, congrats. And if you don't like the quality of this video, please check out Steam Train Videos production on this. James's video quality is much better.

[greggdsciotto]

That was great! From Prescott, Az. Thx!

[heatherallan]

biggesat locomotive of inspiring train

[wolfgangpfeilergartenbahnd]

Eine fantastische Dampflok der X 4014 (Big Boy) Die Amtrak-Züge wurden auch sehr schön gefilmt. Natürlich gab es in Nordamerika noch viele andere große Dampflokomotiven und auch Dieselloks wie die 6900, von denen einige noch fahren. Aber eine solche Dampfmaschine wieder in Betrieb zu nehmen, ist einfach großartig. Danke, dass du es mir gezeigt hast

[sandyzalecki]

Thanks for the video. I wish I still lived in Deming so I could have seen this the 4014. Now I live in Prescott, AZ. There are no trains that come us here.

[brianfalzon]

Awesome, 4012 should reunite with 4014!

[railwaymechanicalengineer]

BIG BOY may NOT be the LARGEST STEAM LOCO
The "Big Boy" actual locomotive, which excludes its separate tender, is 85ft 4in long, & has a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement.
The Australian AD60 class Garratts (an articulated Tank engine design) are 108ft 7in long & have a 4-8-4+4-8-4 wheel arrangement !!!
The "Big Boy" tender was 47ft 6in. Giving an overall loco + tender length of 132ft 9in
The Garratt loco + water tender tank car were 57ft 3in long. So total Loco & tender length was 165ft 9in

The British Beyer Peacock Company "Garratt" type articulated locos could be found ALL over the world (except North America), in many different sizes, from little Narrow Gauge versions up to the giant Australian & French Algerian types. Their special design concept was to provide hugely powerful locomotives, with very light axle loads (The Australian AD60 had a maximum axle load of only 16tons), to operate mainly in the "Colonies" on poor quality light weight track. This aspect of their design was so successful thousands were built for use on all continents (even the Russians has some) except North America until 1957 MANY are preserved, including four Australian AD60's (one in working order in New South Wales) !!!