HO P3 UP Big Boy #4014 Steam Loco/Excursion Tour/DC/DCC Smok

Often called The
largest steam loco ever made, and certainly a contender for the Worlds
Most Famous Locomotive, the Big Boy was forged under some of the most
strenuous demands ever placed on a locomotive. The UP Railroad needed a
locomotive that could be used to pull a 3,600-ton train over Sherman
Hill and the 1.14% grade from Ogden to Wasatch, Utah without the need
for helpers.

When the
design specifications were complete, it was decided on the use of a
simple articulated, high speed, 132 ft. long locomotive sporting
sixteen 68 diameter drive wheels. What they created was the longest and
among the heaviest, most powerful steam locomotive legends in the
world. And had not the worker at ALCO chalked Big Boy on the side of
the smoke box of one of the 4-8-8-4s under construction, a name that
immediately caught on, it is rumored that the name of the type would
have been Wasatch, for the mountains they were built to conquer.

Quote from
Worlds Greatest Steam Locomotives by Eugene L. Huddleston:

There were 25
locomotives fabricated in two different groups. Class 1 were
locomotives #4000-4019 and Class 2 was numbered 4020-4024. The first
Big Boy #4000 was delivered to Omaha, NE on September 5, 1941. UPs
commitment to the Big Boy required them to replace the lighter rail and
straighten out many miles of trackage for clearance as well as to
resize elements of their service areas (such as turntable lengths,
etc.) for the entire line these locos would run on.

The Big Boys
demonstrated fantastic strength and speed as they faced these
challenges throughout their storied careers. With the total mileage on
the Big Boy fleet being approximately 1,000,000 miles for each
locomotive, one must say that they earned their reputation.

Several
examples remain in museums around the country but silently they sit as
a visual echo to the thunder that once made them revered throughout the
landscape that the Big Boys dominated.