Texas Big Boy move postponed again

Published: August 1, 2013

No. 4018 at Fair Park in Dallas.

Photo by Ken Fitzgerald

DALLAS – Moving former Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4018 from Dallas’ Fair Park to a new site in Frisco has proved to take longer than planners expected. Officials from the Museum of the American Railroad had hoped to make the move on Aug. 4, but maintenance and upgrades along the Trinity Railway Express line between Dallas and Irving will limit access to that portion of the route during midday hours. The museum had originally hoped to move the locomotive in June, but that was postponed until July, and then August. A new move date has not been scheduled.

No. 4018 was built in January 1942 and officially retired in 1962 with 1,037,123 miles. It was donated to the museum, which was then known as the Age of Steam Museum, in 1964. It is one of 25 Big Boys built by American Locomotive Co., between 1941 and 1944, which were the largest steam locomotives ever constructed. Eight Big Boys survive today. Union Pacific recently announced it was requiring Big Boy No. 4014 from the Southern California Chapter Railway and Locomotive Historical Society in Pomona and will return it to active service.