Big Boy, the largest steam locomotive ever built, is owned by the Union Pacific and kept as a sort of mascot. It lives in Cheyenne, but is sent around the U.S. from time to time as a goodwill ambassador for the railroad.
It has been east this summer and is coming home. We intend to meet it as it pulls into Sidney, Nebraska, Wednesday night. If all goes to plan, Big Boy overnights there, and leaves for Cheyenne Thursday morning. We plan to see it leave Sidney and then follow it to Cheyenne, with any luck seeing it steaming along in between the two towns.
How big is Big Boy? I hear it weighs 1,250,000 pounds. Not every track can handle it. We hope to have photos, mostly on the other DrC’s blog, maybe one or two good ones here.
—————
Enough about the train, what about the trip? It is fair to say Wyoming has it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly (hat tip to Sergio Leone).
If you’ve driven across southern WY on Interstate 80 you’ve seen the ugly. Very little of this route is attractive, maybe a short stretch between Cheyenne and Laramie.
Mostly it is high plains, some hoodoos, few trees, much sage and dry grass, plus lots of snow fencing which gives you a serious hint about how tough winter is here. You might see a herd of pronghorns grazing, they’re also known as antelopes. Pretty things, tan and white, and the fastest thing on four legs in North America.
The pretty parts of WY are concentrated along the western and northern borders. This region includes Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and a bunch of National Forests that truly are forested and scenic. There are isolated patches of pretty in the rest of the state, they’re the exception.
Our drive today took us south down the western border region and east across maybe half of the southern “high plains drifter” country. The first half was scenic, the last half not so much.
The upside of driving across I-80 is the speed limit - 80 mph. It is a kick sailing along hour after hour at that pace, speeds illegal in much of the country and both legal and safe here. You really eat up distance in a hurry. My F-350 diesel never broke a sweat, 80 was effortless and I was passed by people doing 90+.
