ARGOS — Local residents will have a pair of opportunities over the summer to see the world’s largest operating steam locomotive — Big Boy No. 4014 — the only one of eight Big Boys in existence and the only one operational.
The Big Boy will pull into Argos on Thursday, June 5, 2026, at the S. Michigan Street Crossing at 2:30 p.m. and then depart for Ft. Wayne at 3 p.m.
In July, the train will make its way back across the state and stop in Knox on July 16, 2026, at 10 S. Heaton St., arriving at 12:30 p.m. CDT and departing at 1 p.m. for South Holland, IL.
Twenty-five Big Boys were commissioned exclusively for Union Pacific Railroad, the first of which was delivered in 1941. These massive locomotives were built to haul heavy equipment in support of the war effort, normally operating between Ogden, Utah, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Big Boys are 133 feet long and weigh 1.2 million pounds.
No. 4014 was retired in Dec. 1961 after traveling 1,031,205 miles. Union Pacific reacquired it from the RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, California, in 2013 and relocated it back to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a multi-year restoration. It returned to service in May 2019 to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad’s Completion.
The seven other remaining Big Boys are on public display in St. Louis, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
