LORAIN, Ohio — When Union Pacific’s famed Big Boy No. 4014 rolled into Lorain on June 8 as part of its first-ever tour of the Northeast, the crowds fell hushed, standing before the circa-1941 train as if a spaceship from outer space had landed in the middle of the International City. The piercing whistle of the world’s largest operating steam locomotive sent babies sitting in strollers and on shoulders into tears, and everyone else into cheers.
Crowds were packed along the track, straining for a clear view of the million‑pound machine as it eased to a 15-minute-long stop. For a scorching summer day, on an otherwise unremarkable block that is usually quiet save for the cars idling while a long freight train crawls past or when it’s pick-up time at the nearby Head Start, the scene was striking: hundreds of people converging for a single, thundering arrival. There was even a food truck.
According to Union Pacific spokesperson Mike Jaixen, that overwhelming turnout has become a pattern all along the route Big Boy has traversed. When the train pulls into certain communities, the influx of visitors who have come to see it can make it feel as though the local population has doubled or even tripled for the day, he said.
History in motion
Big Boy’s appearance in Lorain was one stop on a nationwide tour marking America’s upcoming 250th anniversary and Union Pacific’s own 164‑year history. The eastern leg of the journey, operated in collaboration with Norfolk Southern, marks the first time Big Boy has crossed the Mississippi and steamed into the Ohio Valley since it was built in Schenectady, New York, and delivered to Union Pacific in 1941.
Jaixen describes the tour as a moving tribute to the role that railroads played in building the country.
“I think it’s a reflection of history,” he said. “This Big Boy tour is going coast to coast and is celebrating America’s 250th birthday, which is coming up next month. Union Pacific had its own role in building America, simply with the completion of the transcontinental railroad.”
Jackson said the tour follows that very route.
“So it’s really a nod to America’s legacy and [Union Pacific’s] role in helping to build this country. It’s kind of our little contribution to the celebration of American history.”
The tour includes major display events in eight cities, along with more than 50 whistle-stops in 10 states, including first‑time visits to communities in Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Big Boy is accompanied by historical passenger cars from Union Pacific’s Heritage Fleet, the No. 1616 “Abraham Lincoln” locomotive and No. 1776 “America250”, as well as Norfolk Southern commemorative locomotives and a heritage passenger car on the eastern leg.
Beyond its symbolism, Jackson described Big Boy as a rare, working relic of America’s heavy industrial past whose revival was anything but guaranteed. Built to haul massive freight trains over the steep grades of Wyoming and Utah’s Wasatch Mountains, the locomotive spent roughly six decades retired in a Los Angeles museum before Union Pacific brought it back to life. The company restored it to working order for the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 2019 — a celebration marking the completion of the transcontinental railroad — and is now sending it coast to coast again, this time to help celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday.
‘A million-pound beast’
The crowd that gathered in Lorain was anything but locals-only. One family had driven down from Detroit, building their day around a brief glimpse of No. 4014. Frank Mulso Jr. said he has been hooked on trains since childhood.
“I had a Lionel train set when I was a kid,” he said. With a nod toward his grandson, Aidan Kotulis, beside him, he added that he’d taken the old set out of storage so they could run it together.
The family, which included Frank’s wife Joanne and daughter Ellie Kotulis, came to Lorain on the final leg of a longer route they traced on maps and parsed from online forums, trying to pinpoint a good viewing spot to catch a sighting of Big Boy.
“We were researching online, trying to figure out what was the best place to get to it,” he said. On their way down, they simply followed the railroad tracks, turning down access roads and scouting out every spot where the train might pass.
The family’s appreciation for history runs deep. Joanne Mulso said their relatives’ roots in the United States trace back to the Revolutionary War, and that love of history helped draw them out to see the locomotive roll by.
Not all the rail action in Lorain came on standard gauge. Gary Fisher drew his own crowd with a handmade, small‑scale locomotive of his own: A kind of “little boy” that’s become a fixture in local parades and events, originally built for the Lions Club in Lorain. It was a hit at the Big Boy whistle stop.
“If I had sold photos, I would have sold a million,” Fisher joked, glancing at the kids clambering around his creation. The project came out of equal parts ambition and self‑preservation.
“I pulled it one year by hand in the parade,” he recalled. “And I almost blew out my rotator cuff, so my wife said, ‘You’re gonna have to find something else to pull it.’”
Instead, Fisher began working out a way for his homemade locomotive to drive under its own power. His creation is pure backyard engineering, built on a garden lawn tractor frame using a 50‑gallon drum as the boiler and capping the front with a piece from an old ceiling fan to mimic the smokebox clean‑out door. Fisher then turned to a local furnace shop for custom parts like the cylinders and the cowcatcher, which he says was the hardest part. He fastened everything together with bolts and brackets, never striking a weld, and figures he spent about 700 hours assembling it in his backyard.
Fisher admits his hobby isn’t exactly standard suburban fare.
“I keep a train in my garage,” he said. “Not too many keep a train in their garage.”
But Fisher’s was in good company, given its rarity. He was quick to note that Big Boy’s comeback wasn’t guaranteed.
“They brought it back from the dead,” he said. “It was in pretty rough condition.”
He pointed out that Big Boy’s second act was nearly stalled over its leaf springs, the stacked strips of spring steel that act like a metal cushion in the suspension and help spread the locomotive’s weight evenly over its wheels. During the massive overhaul of the old locomotive in 2018, Union Pacific’s steam team discovered the original springs were too fatigued to save and ended up replacing the entire suspension with custom‑forged leaf and coil springs made from modern, more resilient alloys — one example, Fisher said, of the herculean effort it took to bring the locomotive back and send it rolling past crowds across the country.
Fisher’s affection for steam power mirrors the awe that drew thousands to the Big Boy’s route.
“Steam locomotives are fascinating, right? Just to think that a little bit of hot water and some fuel powers this million-pound beast, and just to see this come across the country for the 250th anniversary is just amazing,” he said.
For those who missed their chance to see Big Boy this time around, the train will travel across Pennsylvania with a stop in Altoona on July 9 and 10, and another stop in Leetsdale in the evening of July 11. Then it will make its way through northern Ohio again, from July 12 to July 15, including a stop in Struthers on July 12 and Fostoria on July 14. For information about the schedule, visit online.
