LULING, La. (WGNO) — Residents of the small town of Luling started gathering around lunch for something big! The world’s biggest steam locomotive, Big Boy 4014 was doing a pit stop on the way to New Orleans and no one there wanted to miss it.
Ed Dickens, Manager of Heritage Equipment for Union Pacific said, “This is 1940s work. Even though we’ve rebuilt. We’ve got a lot of little niceties we’ve added to it, but there’s no substitute for the hard work and that goes into maintaining a 1940s steam locomotive.”
The Big Boy Tour is making its way across the country and every stop is a rewarding experience for fans of classic trains and the folks that work the train.
“Seeing the smiles and all the happy faces, the families tailgating along the way, the flags, the little posters that kids make. It makes all that hard work and years of toil go away,” said Dickens.
Big Boy 4014 to headed downriver to New Orleans and on to its next journey, living history and making history.
Dickens stated, “People hear the story of the Big Boy, the legend of the Big Boy, the world’s largest steam locomotive and for years they were told that it would never run again. It’s just too big and it’s just impossible. If you look at the size of it, it’s not a stretch to come to that conclusion. But we did it!”
Big Boy will arrive at the Moonwalk along the river downtown at 5:45 tonight and at The Fly at Audubon Park around 7:15 p.m..
The train will be on display at The Fly from 9-3 Saturday.