I can recall as a child, maybe 3-4 yrs. old, my parents taking me to the RR yard in Omaha, NE. They had pedestrian bridges over the tracks and you could stand there as the locomotives passed underneath as they pulled out of the station. We used to get a kick out of being engulfed by the steam exhaust from the "chimneys" as they passed. I can remember being on dad's shoulders during this and he'd run from one track to the next so we could have another train pass under us. I always got a wave from the engineers, was a big deal to a liitle kid. I specifically remember us taking the Rock Island Rocket each summer during the war, going across the prairie from Omaha to Denver, then using a borrowed car to drive up to Boulder where dad was working on first his Masters then Phd. at the University of Colorado. I remember seeing one of the first Big Boy locomotives built for the Union Pacific, weighed over a million pounds. A monster of a machine and what a sound.
Years later dad left a school superintendent position in NW Iowa to take a classroom spot in the local Jr. Hi of Ft. Dodge, IA, claimed he did it due to me moving into my teenage years and felt he wanted to be more available. My folks bought a small new house only a block from the local RR tracks which was still being used by steamers. It had a slight incline and if it was pulling a long train, most of the time they couldn't make it past our place. I'll never forget in the middle of night I'd often be awakened by one of them giving a short toot-toot, the signal for a little push needed from the rear. I found out years later that the ever popular "weed" grew wild along the tracks.
I see the Union Pacific RR has restored engine #4014, one of the first 14 Big Boys built about 1941. I'd love to go see it in action, some great memories there. Here's a little video of it in operation after restoration. Go to about the 18 minute spot if you want to move past all the early stuff in the yard. It will take you to where the person filming is on the highway parallel to the train headed west across the plains. I find it fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT6B3a9eZzMJust noticed in that video there's a diesel locomotive a few cars back. It's not used for assisting in the pulling, it's for dynamic braking in the mountains...something the steamers didn't have.
