Shippers who do have only 1 railroad to select from still have a choice of transportation modes, especially trucks.

Steam locomotives are interesting to the public because of their scarcity. There is only ONE BigBoy and it will ALWAYS draw huge crowds until there are two of them. Too many of them and the public goes "Ho hum, another steam locomotive". Similarly, a railroad can say that one (or three) steam locomotives is a marketing bonanza. Too many of them and RR management starts thinking about revenue instead of marketing. Which is not a bad idea if you are one of us. Not so much if you run a railroad.

As I recall, the quotes attributed to Steve Lee and running a 4000 was that it was impractical because there were only two places on the UP that you could turn one and they were only x miles apart. One difference about today is that the UP is a much, much larger system thanks to all the mergers. How many places can turn a Big Boy may not even matter anymore if you design the route so you don't have to turn it at all.

[looks at Green Bay]
[looks at Denver]
[looks at Scranton]
[looks at Kirkwood]
[looks at Cheyenne]
[looks at Frisco, Texas]
[looks at Omaha]


........................................................... huh?!?

I think that you should be able to infer the unstated qualifier, "running". It's also the ONE Big Boy the most people will ever see.

Thank you Mark, for the missing qualifier.

I was in St. Paul yesterday, up close and personal with 4014 and the "wow factor" is really huge. WOW! And in the 6 hours that the locomotive and train were open to the public, I can truly say that it drew thousands of people. As to the "Ho, Hum Factor" that ADM4 mentioned; after seeing a living, breathing monster like this, hearing all the noises it makes, the whine of the turbogenerators and the roar of the atomizer, every one of its stuffed and mounted relatives in museums is a "Ho, Hum" experience in comparison.

And FYI, when I was there one of the crew had the engineer's side front engine rod packing apart replacing a bronze split bushing. Drew a pretty good crowd to watch.

In the Trains magazine special on the Big Boy it says that a West Coast businessman approached the UP about restoring a Big Boy in 2011 and was willing to pay for it. Who would that have been? I guess some rich people like trains too.
Mike Nix

An outside offer to fund the restoration BigBoy to operation was just a tiny fraction of the overall cost. Given that the restoration costs will be dwarfed by the operational costs in short order, the decision had to be a Board of Directors level decision. Meaning, the railroad expected to get something back from their investment. And that is unusual in today's financial environment. That initial offer may have given the the UP board a kick, but it was the board's decision to proceed, and the UP didn't need any outside help, thank you.

I bet you if the steam crew had to make a list of goals they're always out to achieve with their work, improving employee morale is on the list.

And thanks to Frisco1522 for his behind the scenes insight about Steve Lee and his dream to restore a Big Boy to operation during the latter days of his leadership of the program. All I ever knew is what would get said in interviews and so on, and that was that it would sure be neat to do, but alas was sadly impractical.

Always was left with some disappointment that there wasn't an apparent itch there to tackle such a project, so it pleases me to learn I was way off base there. I'm sad it couldn't of happened back when he was in charge, but I'm thrilled that his successor was able to pull it off and make the dream happen.