A Day Aboard the Union Pacific Big Boy

A day aboard the Union Pacific Big Boy was less about spectacle and more about managing steam, coal, water, and thousands of tons of freight. See how the crew worked this massive steam locomotive up the Wasatch Mountains, from firing the 300-psi boiler to handling the train’s immense weight on the climb toward Wyoming. Built for wartime freight, the Big Boy locomotive combined enormous tractive effort with articulated running gear that could handle Union Pacific’s mountain route. This is what a working day aboard one of America’s most powerful locomotives really looked like.