4014
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The world's largest steam-powered locomotive is hitting the rails and will be featured prominently at baseball's College World Series taking place next month in Omaha, Neb.
Union Pacific's Big Boy locomotive 4014 will leave Cheyenne, Wyo., June 7 on its Home Run Express Tour, which wraps up in Omaha, where the company is headquartered.
The engine will stop at five destinations along the way.
It will then spend 11 days on display during the college baseball championship tournament, parked outside the city's Charles Schwab Field between June 15 and 25.
The 1.1 million pound locomotive was delivered in 1941, one of 25 Big Boys built to haul heavy freight during World War II, specifically to navigate Utah's steep Wasatch Mountain Range.
After it was retired in 1961, Union Pacific reacquired locomotive 4014 from a museum in 2013, restoring it to operational condition in time for the 150th anniversary marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 2019.
The 132-foot steam engine is almost twice the length of a traditional modern diesel freight hauler. Locomotive 4014 is the last operational Big Boy in existence today, although seven are on static display.
Link to videoGo to about 4:20. Notice the double smokestack.
And yeah, Lionel is still in business. You can get a model...about $2,700.
Link to videoGo to about 25:00 - note how the "steam" comes out when the whistle is blown, how there is steam exhaust under the cab, and of course, the realistic sounds.
