4-8-8-4 Big Boy Wilson Aftercooler, 25-C-400 Coal Tender - Sound & DCC - Par -- Painted, Unlettered (1944; black, graphite)

This Broadway Limited Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy steam locomotive is based on the huge articulated engines used to haul trains up the UP's mountainous trackage west of Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Ogden, Utah. Often called the largest steam locomotive 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. hen the design specifications were complete, it was decided on the use of a simple articulated, high speed, 132 ft. 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 front of the smoke box of one of the 4-8-8-4s under constructi