‘It’s humongous’: Historic Big Boy locomotive returns to the suburbs for stop in West Chicago

To Matt Vida, the Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 is not just the world’s largest operating steam locomotive.

The 600-ton locomotive is an icon to the 38-year-old St. Charles man, who saw Big Boy for a fourth time on Tuesday in West Chicago.

“It’s humongous. It’s an awesome piece. It’s basically like The Beatles or Rolling Stones of railroading,” said Vida, who followed the locomotive from Geneva to West Chicago.

“I’ve just always loved trains since I was a kid. I mean, they’re awesome,” he added. “The sound, the noise they make, it brings all the emotions out of you.”

Vida was not alone.

By about 5:29 p.m., when the time the locomotive came into view to spectators on the A. Eugene Rennels Bridge on blocked-off Wilson Street, hundreds lined the bridge, two Metra railroad platforms and swarmed the old Turner Court train depot west of the bridge.

The huge engine and several accompanying cars paused for more than half an hour in front of the depot before the engineer — drawing applause by blasting the train’s whistle, a guttural roar — chugged slowly into the Larry S. Provo Union Pacific Training Center, 335 Spencer St., where Big Boy will be on public display Wednesday between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.

It departs on Thursday morning.

“I’ve always liked steam engines,” said Amy Froelich, whose brothers put pennies on the CTA line’s Skokie Swift tracks behind their house growing up.

“It just brings you back to the old days when there was classy stuff, traveling by train,” she said.

Jonny Osielski doesn’t remember the old days, unless they were when he was 6 years old and saw Big Boy for the first time in 2019.

“But I don’t have that great of a memory of it, so I wanted to see it again,” said the 13-year-old West Chicago boy.

He sought to marvel at Big Boy’s 16-foot height, its 133-foot length.

“And the fact that we normally don’t have that many events in West Chicago, so it’s kind of cool to see another huge event,” Osielski said.

There were casual observers, like John Swarensi, 48, of Chicago, a reverse commuter from his job in West Chicago.

“I got dropped off here to take Metra home at 4:45 (p.m.), and saw all of the people standing around, realizing that, well, Big Boy must be coming in soon, so I guess I would wait and take the next Metra train in,” Swarensi said.

Cary Annen is no casual train man. The 78-year-old Lake in the Hills resident volunteers at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, working on steam engines as his grandfather did. In a long-ago accident in a Galesburg train yard, Annen’s Uncle Axel “got his legs cut off” in a train accident, Annen said.

Yet he was one of the very first on the bridge waiting to see the locomotive for the first time with his son, Daryl.

Growing up in Arlington Heights, Cary Annen’s love for trains came early. “I always smelled them when the steam engines went past,” he said.

Amateur and professional photographers alike witnessed Big Boy’s arrival. Andrew Mangalindan of Waukegan has 33,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, A-Train4014 Productions.

“I like to tell people I’m living my best life off of it,” Mangalindan said.

Wearing his custom black Big Boy T-shirt, Mangalindan got up at 3 a.m. to drive four hours to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and follow the train back to West Chicago.

When he was a boy, he saw photos of Big Boy and thought it was an ugly hulk. Maturity gave him appreciation.

“I hated it as a kid,” Mangalindan said. “But as a 29-year-old now, I enjoy seeing a machine that big.”

Twenty-five massive steam locomotives were originally built for Union Pacific to haul freight in mountainous terrain during World War II.

Big Boy No. 4014 was delivered to Union Pacific in 1941 and retired in 1961. It returned to service in 2019.

Currently, there are eight remaining Big Boy locomotives. But Big Boy No. 4014 is the only one that is operational.

Big Boy is making a coast-to-coast trip to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary. When the locomotive leaves on Thursday, it will head to Indiana and then to Philadelphia for a July 4-5 showing.