The Union Pacific Big Boy is a type of simple articulated 4-8-8-4 steam locomotive manufactured by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) between 1941 and 1944 and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in revenue service until 1962. The 25 Big Boy locomotives were built to haul freight over the Wasatch mountains between Ogden, Utah, and Green River, Wyoming. In the late 1940s, they were reassigned to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where they hauled freight over Sherman Hill to Laramie, Wyoming. They were the only locomotives to use a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement: four-wheel leading truck for stability entering curves, two sets of eight driving wheels and a four-wheel trailing truck to support the large firebox. Today, eight Big Boys survive, with most on static display at museums across the country. One of them, No. 4014, was re-acquired by Union Pacific and rebuilt to operating condition from 2014 to 2019 for the 150th anniversary of the First transcontinental railroad, regaining the title as the largest and most powerful operating steam locomotive in the world.
I would love the Big Boy #4014 as well as FEF3 #844. The engine should come with a UP excursion consist and a couple of auxiliary water tenders.
One thing that will differentiate British and American steam locomotives is that any American steam locomotives built after 1893 have to comply with the railroad safety appliance act which requires them to have air brakes as standard
