I live not too far from the train museum where Big Boy 4014 sat for around 50 years and where
the UP Steam crew came in late 2013-early 2014 to take it back to Cheyenne Wyoming. I thought I’d post a few of the photos I took of that period. It was because of that I chose my handle BBF.
To watch the UP crew, headed by Ed Dickens, disassemble some of the linkage and other parts of the locomotive, build the panel track across the parking lot, move the Big Boy tediously and the Metro Link track crew cut the mainline siding among other things, then UP using a Southern Pacific legacy locomotive to pull the 4014 out on to the U.S. mainline for the first time in 50 years, and to witness such a historic event, certainly cemented my interest in how Trains are such a major and significant part of Life, which does add to the inspiration and appreciation for Model Railroading IMO.
Still Sitting in the Museum
Some driving parts were removed so it could be towed free wheeling back to Cheyenne.
Goodbye Museum --Towed Out to the Parking Lot Now via Panel Track 4014 sat near that yellow structure and you can see it was just pulled out in the rear at the edge of the parking lot
Panel track used (like Model RR sectional track) with plywood under it to level the track because the parking lot surface is uneven and not level. Members of the crew would walk slowly with the 4014 carrying 2 X 4s watching the wheels as it moved inch by inch to nudge the wheels if they showed any indication of wanting to climb up the rail and derail.
This is the NHRA Pomona Dragstrip parking lot within the L.A. County Fair property. BB moved across for about one mile to get the 4014 close to the existing Metro Rail tracks. You can see the NHRA grandstands in the distance and that is where the Big Boy ended its parking lot journey on other side of grandstand (North) where the Metro mainline is. The Metro rail tracks join with the active UP tracks about 15 miles South then it’s 35 miles East to the large UP Yard (5 miles long) in Colton Ca., where it sat for a month or more and then was taken on a hospital train up through Cajon pass and on N-East to Cheyenne.
Loader was used to pull the Big Boy across the parking lot on the sectional track, using a canvas fabric strap which was tied to the Big Boy coupler.
It ended up here adjacent to the Metro Rail mainline.See the red air hoses connected to a compressor via a portable generator to power the airbrakes and horn (not much) for the trip to Cheyenne.
Finally at night almost 3:00 AM in Jan. 2014 the Metro Rail trains were stopped from running and the Mainline was cut to create a siding into the parking lot and join with the last sections of panel track. UP used the Southern Pacific Legacy diesel locomotive to pull the Big Boy out on to the Metro Main Line, tender first, and south a few miles onto the UP Mainline. The temporary siding was disconnected and the MetroLink Mainline was set back to normal. There was a crowd of about a hundred or more Rail Fans watching the historic event. UP had some trouble getting the 4014 through the temporary Radius of the side track and it wanted to derail, so they had to keep fiddling with the wheels and the track to get it out onto the Mainline.
Big Boy parked overnight at the Metro Station several miles west of the fairgrounds, then the next morning became part of a special Big Boy Towing Train and headed out east, about 35 miles to the UP Yard in Colton Ca.
It was then prepared at Colton Yard, over a few months, then departed for the long trip to Cheyenne in the Spring of 2014 on the "Hospital Train
Hospital Train, Up and over Cajon Pass
Arrival in Cheyenne
And the Restoration Began in the Cheyenne UP Roundhouse
