I know this question has probably been asked a thousand times here before, but I can’t find any reference. So here goes…
Does anyone know if UP ever used any Big Boys to pull a passenger train? I talked to a retired UP engineer years ago and he said they did once in awhile, but I’ve never seen a photo or read anything where Big Boys pulled passengers.
Anybody out there know the answer? Also, did they venture off their usual routes from Cheyenne to Ogden? I know they were cleared to run to Los Angeles but did they ever do it?
I’ve seen numerous vintage photos of Challengers on passenger, but never a Big Boy. As far as track size, weight limitations go, a 4-12-2 made it over Cajon and on down to LA, so an articulated might make it as well. I’m wondering if, and doubting that, Big Boys were equiped with steam lines for passenger service.
I just heard about Big Boys being headed sometimes in front of troop trains during wartime, but this was also a very rare case. But it´s possible, that they were in passenger service, too. But this happended very rarely, so that there are probably no existing photos of Big Boys with passenger trains, although it might sometimes have been the case.