Highways and Byways: Big Boy

My 50^th Post

By Maik Strosahl

When I first started the Highways and Byways column, I was a bit worried I would not be able to keep up with the weekly schedule. I did miss one week, but have had fun working with all of the Moristotelians. For my 50^th post, I am going to share something a bit different.
    I was relaxing with my wife one recent Monday afternoon, preparing to leave for another week behind the wheel of my truck, when she saw a notice that a special train was coming to Jefferson City. We checked the schedule and realized we could wait for the boys to get home from school and go down to where the the train would spend the night.
    Union Pacific 4014 is a steam engine built in 1941, one of 25 that were assigned to mostly mountain crossing. It was in revenue service until 1959. Of those made, only 8 are intact—7 in museums and “The Big Boy,” as it is called, travels around the country on special excursions. It was restored to do so in 2019 after almost six decades of being dormant.
    We loaded up the boys and went to the area they set up, west of the Capital building and east of the Highway 54 bridge on the southern bank of the Missouri River.
    For my 50^th Highways and Byways post, I did not write a poem. Rather I wanted to share the photographs of this historic relic.
    Here’s hoping the next 50 posts will be as easy to create and at least a few of them be entertaining to read!

Post Script. My sister, Annette Ackerland, lives in Colorado. As I was working on this post, she sent a message that the 4014 was scheduled to go right past her home on its way to Denver. Below my own photographs, please enjoy her short video of The Big Boy as it passes her place in Colorado. Be sure to turn up the volume!

Copyright © 2021 by Maik Strosahl Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there.