UP 4005 leads a train out of Laramie in April of 1948. 4005 will be donated to the Forney Museum in Denver after its retirement in 1959. 4005 was also the only Big Boy to get into a serious/deadly wreck. In April of 1953, it took a bad switch at 50 miles per hour, derailing. The engine flipped, killing the engineer and fireman, and mortally wounding the brakeman. Thse werent the only deaths, as severla of the head-end cars were hog cars, and many of the pigs were killed when their cars derailed. surpisingly, the engine would be rebuilt, and would continue in service until the end of steam service on the UP. Obtained from Union Pacific Steam: Big Boy Portraits (Bush, Ehernberger) |