Big Boy at Beaver Park

The scene at Beaver Park on Monday

Just by happy accident, I happened to have Monday off for a long-scheduled doctor appointment. So I was in the right place at the right time to catch Union Pacific's famed Big Boy No. 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, as it rumbled by the Beaver Park crossing.

Here's a nice photo of Big Boy, courtesy of the Union Pacific website.

But getting back to Beaver Park.

It was kind of a festive atmosphere. There were only a handful of cars parked along the highway, and a few photographers setting up, when I drove by at ten to nine. But when I came by again on the way home around 10:00 am, there were dozens of cars parked on the grass just east of the crossing, as well as on both sides of Route 6. So I joined the growing crowd and tried to find a good vantage point close to the tracks.

After a few false alarms, ol' Big Boy finally thundered into view. (Sorry, a very low resolution version was all that Blogger let me upload. But really nice video of Big Boy and fantastic pix are all over the internet.)

It was fun taking part in something that has been in the news so much.

*****

Here's a little higher res version, but clipped to fit within the 100MB limit for uploading.