BY ERIC HRIN and BOB ETTINGER
Gazette Newspapers
ASHTABULA – Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere said he’s been a train buff since he was a little boy.
So, he and others are especially excited about the Union Pacific #4014 “Big Boy” passing through the city.
“To see this thing operating is going to be something,” he told city council at its June 1st meeting.
The engine has quite a pedigree as the largest surviving—operating—steam locomotive built in history.
Timonere said it will be rolling through Ashtabula on June 8.
“And it is planned to come right on the tracks here on Main Avenue by West 48th Street,” he said.
Timonere noted that it will depart Euclid around 2 p.m. on June 8. He didn’t know how fast the train would be traveling, but he expected it to be in Ashtabula sometime between 4 and 6 p.m.
“There is a tracker online where we can monitor it, its travel,” he said. “It’s actually going to park in Conneaut overnight and then depart Conneaut in the morning.”
He said there is no whistle stop or public viewing, however.
Timonere said the city has been in discussion with the Ashtabula Downtown Development Association (ADDA) about having a watch party of sorts.
“This is all part of the 250th anniversary of the country,” he said.
He noted that it’s the first time the Big Boy has been on the East Coast since it was manufactured.
“It might not be a big deal to a lot of people, but there’s quite a following of this engine,” he said.
Timonere said it will be heading into Philadelphia for the Fourth of July.
“And then it will actually be going back through here, I believe, it’s on July 13th,” he said. “It will be departing Conneaut at 9 in the morning and then heading to Rocky River after that. So, be on the lookout.”
Timonere thought it would be an impressive sight.
“I think even the view of it going across the trestle is going to be something,” he commented.
Council President John Roskovics asked if it would slow down while going through a populated area.
“Well that track, you can’t go at a real big clip on that track,” Timonere said, adding that the engine’s whistle alone will be notable.
Roskovics said he heard that people in Illinois were making “a big deal” about the train when it was going through that area.
“This is a big deal,” Timonere said. “This, of course, goes along with the merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern. That’s a Norfolk Southern track that it’s going to run on here. Really cool.”
After it passes through Ashtabula, the steam locomotive will be pausing at the Norfolk Southern Conneaut Yards on June 8, but there will be no public viewing.
But people can watch “Big Boy” as it departs Conneaut heading east June 9 and again on July 13 heading back west at 9 a.m. on both days.
“Conneaut is renowned for its rich history in rail, having been the one of the largest maintenance hubs for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis (Nickel Plate) Railroad, the very line on which the 4014 will travel, from 1882 until the transition to diesel in the late 1950s, employing thousands of Conneaut residents spanning multiple generations; two of my own from our family home against the southernmost tracks along Madison Street,” Conneaut City Manager Nick Sanford said in a press release. “It is therefore most fitting to be host – albeit not public as indicated on the railroad’s website – for us to catch a glimpse of the marvels of early-20th century engineering.”
Union Pacific Railroad is asking those observing to remain at least 25 feet away from railroad property as “Big Boy” passes for safety purposes.
“Safety protocols will be in effect by the Norfolk Southern, which I surmise will prohibit entry onto Norfolk Southern property within Conneaut Yards; however being a city of many grade-level crossings and viewpoints, I fully expect many visitors to our community as when NKP 765 came to Conneaut in 2015 and in the days when steam made its return in the 1980s and early 1990s,” Sanford said.
