Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014, the largest steam locomotive ever built, pulled into Pine Bluff on Saturday afternoon, coming to a halt at what was the Pine Bluff railroad station and surrounded by hundreds of people who had gathered to witness the event. The engine is 132 feet long and weighs 1.2 million pounds, about three times as heavy as a Boeing 747. Twenty-five Big Boys were built, with eight still surviving and only one in operation. The stop in Pine Bluff was part of UP’s Heartland of America Tour, which will include a stop in Kingsland on Monday from 11:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The visit was reminiscent of the Cotton Belt’s Engine 819, which was put back into operation for several years in the 1980s and would travel once a year to the Fordyce on the Cotton Belt festival. Video of the Big Boy arriving and departing Pine Bluff at pbcommercial.com/915bigboy/. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)
Big Boy pulling into the station
