Union Pacific's Gas Turbines: The Big Boy's Would-Be Successors

In December 1950 Union Pacific decided to buy its first gas turbine locomotives, the deafening "Big Blows", for the very mountain line the Big Boy was built for, and later it bought thirty far bigger ones. So were they the Big Boy's successors? We follow Railway Age, Diesel Progress, Union Pacific's own engineers and the historians Thomas Lee and Don Strack through the test engine, the fuel bet, the coal turbine and the end, to the two that survive. 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 Railway Age, Diesel Progress, Union Pacific's own reports and papers, and the historians who dug through them, 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: Why Did the Norfolk & Western Hold Out Against Diesels?    • Why Did the Norfolk & Western Hold Out Aga...   Why the National Park Service Owns a Union Pacific Big Boy    • Why the National Park Service Owns a Union...   Locomotive Geek: The railroads, one story at a time. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Big Blows 01:30 Equal the Big Boy 04:15 The Test Engine 07:32 An Addition 10:16 Side by Side 13:44 The Big Blow at Work 18:16 The Fuel Bet 20:35 Nearly Twice the Power 23:29 Coal 24:43 The End 27:24 What's Left SOURCES Thos. R. Lee, Turbines Westward (1975). Don Strack, UtahRails.net: Union Pacific dieselization history, diesel and Big Boy rosters, AFEs. Union Pacific's history pages (gas turbines, Big Boy 4014) Railway Age, 1938 to 1958, including 23 Dec 1950, 29 Dec 1952, 12 Apr 1954 (F. Fahland, UP) and 27 Jan 1958 Diesel Progress (C. F. A. Mann, Gas Turbines Make History, 1955). Ross C. Hill (UP), Six Million Miles with Gas Turbines, SAE, 1956. Railway Locomotives and Cars (1959, 1961, 1963). Union Pacific, Higher Horsepower Diesel Units (1963) Also: Ogden Standard-Examiner (4 Apr 1950), Classic Trains (Les Clark, Summer 2010), Railfan & Railroad (July 2019), Trains, The Wheel Clicks (Nov 1945), Franklin M. Reck, The Dilworth Story (1954), the National Park Service (Steamtown) IMAGE CREDITS Photos, CC BY 2.0: Aaron Headly: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Mike Steele: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... H. Michael Miley: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... CGP Grey: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... David Wilson: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... edenpictures: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Dan S: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... David Ackerman: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Richard Bauer: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Bruce Fingerhood: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Tony Webster: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Tyler Silvest: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Aaron Pedersen: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... Larryzap, CC BY 3.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Brainandforce, CC BY 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=.... Shown whole, with labels beside it: Davidng913, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=... CC0: Gary Lee Todd, Smallbones, Telecineguy (Wikimedia Commons). Public domain: Union Pacific Railroad, distributed by the Association of American Railroads; Union Pacific Railroad; Douglas Wornom (postcard); Alco-GE and General Electric (drawing, postcard); Jack Delano, Library of Congress Film, public domain, Prelinger Archives, Internet Archive: Great Railroad at Work, A (Part I) (1942); Mainline U.S.A. (1957); This Is My Railroad (Part I) (1940s). General film of the time, not Union Pacific. Maps: Natural Earth Photos are cropped, panned or zoomed, and some have text added. The thumbnails are crops of Aaron Headly's, Mike Steele's, H. Michael Miley's, Dan S's, Tyler Silvest's and Union Pacific's photos credited here, with text added.