Powerful steam locomotive to make semiquincentennial stop in Lebanon

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A special, steam-powered train is chugging across the United States this year to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, pulled by the world’s largest operating steam engine. And, on Tuesday, July 7, it’s pulling into Lebanon’s 8th Street station for a brief visit en route to its home depot in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Union Pacific Railroad is operating the special locomotive journey across America. It will spend the July 4 Independence Day holiday on display in Philadelphia before beginning its trip back to Cheyenne on the old Reading Lines (now Norfolk Southern) through the Lebanon Valley. The stop at the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Station at 250 N. 8th St., Lebanon, will run from 12:30 to 1:15 p.m.

“Railroads helped build this nation by connecting people, communities and commerce – work carried forward for generations by dedicated railroaders,” Norfolk Southern president and CEO Mark George said in a release. “As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Union Pacific’s Big Boy’s return to the East on Norfolk Southern rails reflects a shared legacy.”

The Lebanon station was built in 1900 by Wilson Brothers & Co., a prominent Victorian-era architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Philadelphia. The last passenger train stopped there in 1963, and the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 for its architectural and engineering significance.

The workhorse hauling the semiquincentennial train will be the 1941-built “Big Boy” No. 4014.

No. 4014 was one of 25 Big Boys commissioned exclusively for Union Pacific Railroad to haul heavy equipment in support of the war effort. Big Boys are 133 feet long, weigh 1.2 million pounds, and have a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, the Union Pacific website explains. According to the website, the frames of the Big Boys are hinged, or articulated, so they can negotiate curves despite their great length.

This particular engine was retired in 1961 after traveling 1,031,205 miles. Today, eight Big Boys survive, with seven on display; only No. 4014 still operates. On this semiquincentennial tour, the locomotive will hold major display events in eight cities and make more than 50 whistle-stops in 10 states. The tour will also include ticketed rides in vintage passenger cars through the Poconos Mountains on June 14.

Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 departs Evanston, Wyoming, in a light and steady rain and snowfall on May 8, 2019. (Photo by Bob Kise, used with permission)

The tour launched on April 10 in downtown Sacramento near historic Milepost 0 – the site where Central Pacific began construction on the nation’s first transcontinental railroad in 1863.

“The route through the Ohio Valley, Pennsylvania and the Northeast reflects the historic role railroads played in shaping America’s economic heartland, connecting factories, ports and population centers and fueling the nation’s growth across generations,” the release says.

Big Boy is accompanied on the trip by several historical passenger cars from Union Pacific’s Heritage Fleet, along with two commemorative locomotives: No. 1616 Abraham Lincoln locomotive, which commemorates the country’s 16th president and Union Pacific’s founder; and No. 1776 America250, which features the emblem of the America250 Semiquincentennial Commission, the national nonpartisan organization established by Congress to lead the nation’s 250th anniversary.

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Powerful steam locomotive to make semiquincentennial stop in Lebanon

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