Hear & See the
UP Big Boy (Click here)
UP BIG BOY 4-8-8-4
Features:
- Beautifully Detailed, Accurately Modeled Locomotive and Tender
Body
- Authentic Design, Paint and Color Schemes
- Authentic Sounds with Articulated Chuff (Sound Equipped Units
Only) and Prototypical Operation
- Many Separately Applied Details Including Brass Bell /
Rails
- Detailed Backhead
- Operating Cab-roof Vents
- Constant Intensity Directional Lighting
- Lighted Number Boards
- Factory Installed Painted Fireman and Engineer Figures
- Smoke Cover, Separately Packaged
- Fan Driven Smoke Unit with User Controlled On/Off
- Heavy Weight Pulling Power with Metal Wheel Tire (no traction
tires)
- Locomotive Composition: Die Cast Metal
- Tender Composition: Die Cast Metal
- Locomotive Length: 12.3"
- Tender Length: 6.6"
- Total Coupler-to-Coupler Length: 18.6"
- Motor type: 5-Pole Can with Skewed Armature & Dual Fly
Wheels
- Couplers: (1) Kadee Compatible, (1)Kadee
#58
- Compatible Tracks: Code 70, 83, 100 Rail
- Recommended Minimum Radius: 18"
"DCC & Sound
Upgradeable" Units denoted as DCC & Sound
Upgradeable are units that are not sound equipped and function only in
DC. Modelers may choose to purchase an optional Sound & DCC upgrade kit, specifically tailored to the prototype which will add DCC
and sound functionality. Upgrade kit works only for PCM models with PCM
motherboards.
Often called "The largest
steam loco ever made," and certainly a contender for the "World's
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-foot-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 4-8-8-4's 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."
In the words of 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. UP's 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."
-Excerpted from "Worlds
Greatest Steam Locomotives" by Eugene L. Huddleston
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.
Is the Big Boy the most
legendary locomotive in the US? The world? Perhaps the biggest thrill any model
railroader can have is to witness for himself the majesty of a Big Boy rumbling
over his layout. Watch the faces of your friends and family as she powers by.
And the kids? Oh, my!
**Specifications on this page subject to change.
