Union Pacific's Big Boys: The Complete Story from History to Restoration

(My actual rating is closer to 2 3/4 stars)Union Pacific's 25 4-8-8-4s have long had a massive cult following, one which endures today with the restoration of 4014 to running order. I've long awaited a really substantial reference book on these classic locomotives, and I suppose I'll just have to keep on waiting. For the most part, this is another case of style winning over substance.Not mentioned in the product description is the fact that most of this book is recycled material. All eight chapters were previously published as articles in "Trains" Magazine; three of them are from their July 2019 special issue "Big Boy: Back in Steam." For a book billed as "the complete story," the historical and technical sections are disappointingly anemic. Although the chapters focused on earlier articulated and Superpower locomotives are fairly detailed and fleshed out, there's not much here on the design, development, and operation of the Big Boys themselves. Beyond a decent cutaway artwork and a fairly detailed specifications table, there's little in the way of technical detail; no line diagrams, no schematics of the valve gear, very few images of the "guts" of the locomotive beyond the boiler interior, a smattering of "how it works" information, and not even a labeled image of the backhead. Histories of individual Big Boys are nowhere to be found. Frankly, William Withuhn's "American Steam Locomotives" did a better job describing the Big Boys and their articulated brethren.This leaves the photographs to do much of the heavy lifting, and there's certainly a lot of them here. Thankfully, many of them are absolutely superb, depicting Big Boys and other classic American articulateds in their prime, the restoration of 4014, and its triumphant return to the rails in 2019. Most of the images are finely reproduced, with the fine grain of the black & white photographs and the superb color and detail of the 21st-century photos jumping off the page. Unfortunately, the editors at Kalmbach have totally wasted the landscape format, and many of the photographs go right through the binding. This might be acceptable in a ~70-page staple-bound magazine, but in a 224-page paperback book, a lot of fine mechanical detail disappears into the gutter.If you're a huge fan of the Big Boys, you might be able to forgive this book's flaws and simply enjoy the photographs. If you're interested in the mechanical aspects of steam locomotives, you're probably going to be disappointed.

I was born into a rail family so I have a long history of steam and all that was involved and the progression forward. I have traveled globally and it has been a wonderful experience to observe the changes but even more exciting to visit and/or participate with the many wonderful organizations in their pursuit of restoration and bringing these steam, as well as other, means of rail transportation back to life for other and ensuing generations to view and/or ride on and this publication on the Union Pacific's Big Boy history and restoration is an extremely well documented history and detailed in restoration. The detailed writing and supporting photos will ensure that fans and novices alike can fully understand and appreciate this beautiful locomotive and the UP's financial support, facilities, equipment technical staff that strived over the years to once again bring this machine back to life for all and future generations to enjoy. For those of us that may have seen it operating prior it is wonderful to see it again and even more enjoyable to have in one's possession this very comprehensive documentary in the form of Union Pacific's Bi Boys. Highly recommend that one should add this to your collection.

Train history is a subject my husband enjoys. His grandfather was an engineer. He and his father were both into trains.

This book is very nice with a lot of black and white and colored pictures. My grandson is a train enthusiast and loved it.

History is what you get. If you like railroad history particularly big steam engines you will read it hear. Big boy was reborn and it’s story is here

Really nice, comprehensive story of big steam and the Big Boy! Sent as a gift to Big Boy enthusiast and he loves it !

I bought this book as a gift for my husband and he was very pleased. The photos were high quality and the information well-written.

was a gift for a train lover. great book

A very enjoyable book for enthusiasts of American railways, with plenty of photographs capturing the vast, remote, almost wild aura of much of it’s railway system, in contrast to the compact and ordered British Railway system. This book is not just about the Big Boys, it gives interesting comparisons with other large steam locomotives. If you are a fan of the Big Boy locomotives, but will probably be unable to see the real thing, then this is a worthy publication that you would very much like to own.

i bought this book because my father likes big boy locomotives and so do I highly recommended book

An interesting read on this recently overhauled and now running giant.

Bought for my son who loved this

no dislikes, great pictures, great text, railfans ideal type of book.