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See ‘Big Boy,’ world’s largest steam locomotive, during stop at KC’s Union Station

By Dominick Williams

Updated October 17, 2024 7:54 AM

Engineers operate the Union Pacific’s Big Boy as it rolls into Kansas City on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. The 1.2 million-pound locomotive first put into operation in 1941 is one of 25 ever built and the last one still running. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com

A dinosaur rolled into Kansas City Tuesday night.

It’s not really a dinosaur, but the Union Pacific No. 4014 Big Boy steam locomotive that rumbled and hissed to a stop at Union Station to the delight of hundreds of train enthusiasts who anxiously awaited its arrival Tuesday is a giant from a bygone era.

The locomotive was put into service in 1941 and is the world’s largest steam locomotive. It’s currently in the midst of a tour of middle America called the Heartland of America Tour. The tour started in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on August 28.

Big Boy No. 4014 is 132-foot long and weighs 1.2 million pounds. The engine was one of several Big Boy series locomotives that normally operated on the Union Pacific line between Ogden, Utah, and Cheyenne.

Engine No. 4014 was on display at a rail museum in California after being retired in 1961. In 2013 it was moved back to Cheyenne where a multi-year restoration put it back on the rails in time to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 2019.

The locomotive will be on display for free public viewing on the tracks north of the parking garage at Union Station on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. It is scheduled to depart for Salina, Kansas, at 9 a.m. on Thursday.

Here are photos of the scene when Big Boy No. 4014 rolled in for its stop in Kansas City.