Big Boy sighting: World’s largest operating steam locomotive chugs through Pottstown
Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 locomotive made a pit stop in Pottstown to observe America’s 250th birthday.
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Spectators cheered and yelled as Union Pacific's Big Boy No. 4014 arrived in Pottstown on July 2, 2026. (Kenny Cooper/WHYY)
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Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, chugged through Pottstown in its maiden east coast voyage in celebration of America’s 250th birthday.
Train fans endured triple-digit temperatures Thursday to watch the 1.2-million-pound, World War II-era behemoth make a 15-minute whistle-stop near South Hanover Street.
People lined the gates, filled up the adjacent parking lots and huddled in the intersecting street as the train approached. According to 6abc, more than 100 people were treated for heat-related illness.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people in Pottstown,” Chandler Williams, 24, said.
Peter Davidson, 68, and his wife Emily Davidson came all the way from Santa Monica, California, to see the locomotive in action. The Davidsons also brought along their great-niece Maddy and great-nephew Wyatt, who live in nearby Macungie.
“I wanted them to see the incredible achievements of America,” Peter Davidson said, holding a sign featuring an image he took of a Big Boy in Sierra, Nevada.
Big Boy No. 4014 made its way from Jim Thorpe on Thursday morning before traveling to Reading. The train experienced some delays before arriving in Pottstown. The locomotive will briefly be in King of Prussia on Friday; however, there will be no public stops.
On the Fourth of July, Big Boy No. 4014 will be on public display in Philadelphia near Intrepid Avenue and League Island Boulevard from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free. Big Boy No. 4014 will stay there Sunday for public display before leaving Monday for central Pennsylvania.
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What makes Big Boy No. 4014 special?
The American Locomotive Company assembled 25 Big Boys as an exclusive commission for Union Pacific. The first locomotive was delivered to Union Pacific in 1941.
Big Boy No. 4014 and its contemporaries hauled heavy equipment from Ogden, Utah to and between Cheyenne, Wyoming, during the war effort. In 1961, Big Boy No. 4014 retired after racking up more than 1 million miles.
Measuring 133 feet long, Big Boy No. 4014 is more than half the size of a Boeing 747. The boiler alone contains more than a mile of tubes and flues. Its size made it a tourist attraction. The locomotive eventually found a home at the RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, California.
Just eight Big Boys remain in existence. In 2019, Union Pacific reacquired the locomotive from the museum and restored it. No. 4014 is the only Big Boy still chugging along the tracks today. The seven others remain on display across the United States.
“That’s really part of America: the train,” Mike Parker, 55, said. “That’s what got the west connected. That’s what created time zones, all these different things.”
What’s next for Big Boy after Philly?
Steam billowed out from the locomotive as it approached Pottstown on Thursday afternoon. Spectators unleashed a round of applause and Big Boy No. 4014 responded with an even louder whistle.
“We’re not ‘train people,’ but it was just a curiosity being from Pottstown and seeing this come through,” Julie Laum, 47, said, adding that she loved seeing her neighbors together as a community.
Laum said the delays actually granted her and her daughter Emilie Laum, 18, an opportunity to explore Pottstown, eat at The Blue Elephant and bond with one another. She said the wait in the heat didn’t go to waste.
“Worth it,” Emilie Laum said. “Definitely worth it.”
Vincent DeJohn, 37, said the heat was not going to stop him from seeing “a marvel of American engineering.”
“As a person who loves engineering, who worked on helicopters, who knows what physical and engineering marvels are, here we are and we’re seeing this,” DeJohn said. “And this is just a feat of American engineering and here it stopped right in front of me. And I get to see it — and I get to appreciate it.”
Big Boy No. 4014’s east coast voyage on Norfolk Southern’s tracks includes eight display events in major U.S. cities, totaling more than 50 stops across 10 states.
Philadelphia will be the last eastbound stop before the giant locomotive heads back west to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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