Union Pacific Gave Big Boy 4012 Away. Where Did It Go?

Union Pacific built its Big Boys for the Wasatch Mountains, and no other railroad owned one. So how did No. 4012 end up in Scranton, Pennsylvania? The railroad magazines of the time and the records of Congress tell it, from a gift to a New England museum in 1964 to the national historic site one congressman called a national disgrace. Then the big question: will it ever run again? Yes, the narrator is AI. I'm a train fanatic with a voice that would clear a room, so I let a robot read it. Everything else is done by hand: every fact comes from Railroad Magazine, Railfan & Railroad, the National Park Service's own studies and releases and the House hearing record, and I check every line before it goes up. No invented quotes, no made-up documents, no AI slop. Get something wrong and I'll fix it: tell me in the comments with a source. More from Locomotive Geek: Was the Allegheny Really More Powerful Than the Big Boy?    • Was the Allegheny Really More Powerful Tha...   Why Did the Norfolk & Western Hold Out Against Diesels?    • Why Did the Norfolk & Western Hold Out Aga...   Locomotive Geek: The railroads, one story at a time. CHAPTERS 00:00 The question 00:41 Built for the Wasatch 02:01 Given away 04:17 The trip east 05:07 Hard years in Vermont 06:33 Scranton's offer 08:55 A national historic site 11:19 Will it run again? SOURCES Railroad Magazine: December 1963, January and April 1965, June 1967 (Ron Ziel, 'The Nelson Blount Success Story'), December 1967, February 1968 Railfan & Railroad: March 1982 (Jim Boyd), January and July 1983, March and May 1984, January, March and September 1985, September 1987 Gordon Chappell, 'Steam Over Scranton', National Park Service special history study (1991) National Park Service: Steamtown Comprehensive Management Plan (March 1988); Steamtown pages and releases on Big Boy No. 4012 (2019 to 2021) and the 2026 Big Boy reunion; the park brochure Public Law 99-591 (October 30, 1986); House subcommittee hearing on H.R. 3708 (May 12, 1994), with Roger Kennedy's written testimony and John H. White's letter; Congressional Record, July 12, 1994 Guy Gugliotta, The Washington Post (1993); FOX56 WOLF (June 15, 2026); Trains & Railroads of the Past (4th quarter 2024) Steamtown Historical Collective (Kfoury), 'The Story of Steamtown' Railway Mechanical Engineer (November 1941); UtahRails.net (Don Strack); SteamLocomotive.com (Wes Barris); Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 page IMAGE CREDITS Public domain: National Park Service (NPS Photo), Steamtown NHS (1995, 2019 to 2021); HAER, Library of Congress (Mark Harrell, 1989); Library of Congress (Detroit Publishing Co., 1890s; T. E. Dillon, 1902; Carol M. Highsmith, 2008); Union Pacific Railroad and the Association of American Railroads (1941, and undated); Douglas Wornom (1956 postcard); Bob Howard (1971); Carl H. Sturner and Frank L. Forward (1970s postcards); Daderot and Ken Thomas. CC0: JohnDziak. All via Wikimedia Commons. Hugh Llewelyn, CC BY-SA 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... and https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Davidng913, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... olekinderhook, CC BY 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Sheila in Moonducks, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Andrew Phelps, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Tyler Silvest, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Mark Loewe, CC BY 2.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Brainandforce, CC BY 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... LoganWink311, CC BY 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... Maps from Natural Earth (public domain). Photos are cropped, panned or zoomed, and some have text added. The thumbnail options use photos by the National Park Service, Andrew Phelps and Mark Loewe, cropped with text added.