Editorial: The historic flavor of the Big Boy locomotive

History lumbered through the suburbs last weekend. Susan Rosenberg of Deer Park was among those who felt the earth shudder beneath it.

"I wanted to feel that rumble and be close," she said. "When it came by, I got steam spray on my feet."

It is not often that we get an opportunity for such an intimate, tactile sojourn with our past, and there aren't many artifacts of bygone days that can produce it with quite the impact of the Big Boy 4014 locomotive that Union Pacific Railroad is showing off on a summer tour to mark the 150th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike.

Having served for a 20-year run in the mid-20th century, the Big Boy itself is, of course, not a relic from the historic moment on May 10, 1869 when a few thousand people gathered at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory to watch as the last rail spike was driven to link America by rail from coast to coast.

But it is hard not to be transported to another time and place when you watch the 132-feet-long, 1.2 million-pound behemoth approach, screaming under shrouds of white steam and black smoke.

It brings sights and smells and sounds that stir the imagination in ways a static museum experience can at best only approximate.

Indeed, the Big Boy 4014 that UP is showing off in its "Great Race Across the Midwest" is a unique representative of its brief patch of history.

While eight of the original 25 Big Boys - in service from 1941 to 1961 - remain on display, this is the only one in operation.

"It's a beautiful sight to see it go by," reflected Joe Brabec of Berwyn. "I had pictures of the Big Boy in my bedroom as a little boy in the early '50s, but I never saw one of these guys run. I've seen its sister engines in parks on display, but to see that engine run and to see it here in Illinois in the Chicagoland area, that's cool. Who knows when and if that'll happen again?"

Rail experts will tell you that when the Big Boys were active, they were the pinnacle of the development of the steam engine. These fire-breathing giants ruled the rails at a time when trains lumbered through the places - small towns and big - where people lived.

For many of us in the suburbs of the 21st century, it's hard to conceive of a world in which transportation is romantic, an exciting adventure in the midst of awe-inspiring industrial wizardry instead of a wearisome torment of snarled traffic at rush hour or the drudgery of long lines in stocking feet at the airport.

For a weekend, the Big Boy 4014 transported us to that romantic world.

He is due to set off this morning from the Larry S. Provo Training Center, then storm through Geneva, Elburn, DeKalb and Rochelle on its journey west to Iowa and beyond.