World’s largest steam locomotive, Big Boy, rattles into Topeka

Hundreds of Kansans greet the world's largest steam locomotive, Big Boy No. 4014, on Oct. 17, 2024, in North Topeka. (Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — The train named Big Boy was late. Anticipation and impatience built as 30 minutes passed.

Some had been on the edge of the tracks of Great Overland Station in North Topeka for hours waiting to see a piece of American history pass through town.

Just before 1 p.m., the teeth-chattering whistle of Big Boy No. 4014 announced its arrival.

The 83-year-old steam locomotive stopped briefly Thursday afternoon spewing steam in Topeka on its way from Kansas City, Missouri, to Salina while on the last leg of its Heartland of America Tour . It was met with at least 1,000 people from across Kansas, eager to catch a glimpse of the living legend.

Crowds have gathered at almost every stop on the eight-week, nine-state tour, ranging from hundreds to thousands to see the more than 1.2 million lb. locomotive, said Mike Jaixen, spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad.

“There’s a legend of the Big Boy,” he said.

The way Jaixen explains the draw of the Big Boy begins in 1941 when the first Big Boy rolled out of the factory in Schenectady, New York. It wasn’t named Big Boy then. It was going to be named after the Wasatch Mountains, through which it would travel for 20 years and more than 1 million miles between Utah and Wyoming hauling freight before retiring in 1961.

But one crew member, who was amazed at the sheer size of it, took a piece of chalk and scrawled the name “Big Boy” on the locomotive, Jaixen said. Crew members today still draw the name in chalk on the locomotive’s front.

The Big Boy No. 4014 was one of 25 manufactured exclusively for Union Pacific, and it’s now the only one in operation after it was brought out of retirement and restored between 2013 and 2019, which allowed it to reclaim its title as the largest steam locomotive in the world. It’s almost as long as two typical diesel locomotives and produces more than 6,000 horsepower.

Jeff and Lena Appenfeller of Topeka waited from behind a fence on the northeast side of the tracks. Others were sitting on the hoods and in the trunks of their cars or in pools of crowds near the station. Lena Appenfeller, a 7-year-old, had the day off from school, and it was Jeff Appenfeller’s second time seeing Big Boy No. 4014 in Topeka. The locomotive’s whistle will “rattle your teeth,” he said.

As Big Boy churned around the bend and slowly rolled into the station, railroad police and crew tried to keep excited spectators from lingering on the tracks. It stopped for about 40 minutes, and people swarmed the front of the train for photos or to get a closer look while crews performed minor maintenance work.

One couple came to watch from El Dorado, more than 100 miles away, and had plans to chase the train to Wamego, to witness it among the sparsely populated fields, they said.

Doug Edwards drove the 30 miles from Holton to see Big Boy.

Trains were a big part of his life as a kid. Now a retired electronics businessman, they remind him of the northeastern Kansas farm he grew up on, and recalling those memories made him emotional as he looked out at the tracks.

“It’s a childhood thing,” he said.