NNG: 4014 and the "Great Race to Ogden"

In between a couple of short visits to Silverton, CO to see the D&S, I spent a good portion of May following Union Pacific's recently restored Big Boy locomotive (#4014) on it's first trip from Cheyenne, WY to Ogden, UT and back. Dubbed the "Great Race to Ogden" this trip was planned to help celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. While #844 and #4014 "raced" to Ogden together with #4014 leading the doubleheader, the two locomotives met just outside Ogden Union Station to re-create the driving of the golden spike at Promontory, UT.

This video has clips from the test run on May 2nd, the outbound trip to Ogden (May 4-8), and the return home to Cheyenne after the 150th anniversary celebration (May 12-19). I included a number of clips of #4014 working fairly hard and it was certainly impressive to witness. I believe the diesel was providing resistance with the dynamic brakes in all but the first two clips. It's also possible the dynamic brakes were not being used in Echo Canyon (2nd to last clip), but I don't think the Big Boy would be as loud otherwise.

-James
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