Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 - 2021 Tour (Largest Working Steam Engine)

bigredseo

HD Community Advisor
Staff member
Hey guys,

As many of you know, I'm quite the railfan. I've had a model railroad since I was a couple of years old which grew into a massive layout (more than 3,000 pieces of rollingstock (engines, freight cars, passenger, etc). That layout took up a 2 car garage and took 20+ minutes to go from one end of the layout to the other. Yeah, it was big! It's not that big anymore and currently resides with my parents at about 1/4th the size of the track. Still have all the rollingstock, but never built up a layout when I moved to Nebraska 12 years ago.

Anyway, I was chatting with @Artashes the other day and telling him how I drove about 3 hours last week to see a steam engine roll by at 40mph (a few minutes of enjoyment, but well worth it in my book).

I took two video cameras with me. If you're interested in seeing the videos you can check them out here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNr1-yTOLay6qjIvfXKAHAg They're the first two videos on the list.

Anyway, we were talking about the sky getting blown out (too much white) and how to counter it. It's a lot harder to do in post-production than if I had configured the histogram and ISO in the camera.

Since I recorded in 4k @ 60fps, I was able to export some pretty good shots to JPG and then tweak them as needed. I've attached them here (original & revised). If anyone wants the larger version and wants to play in their graphic editors to see if they can make the picture pop even more, feel free to message me and I'll shoot you over the larger image.

Just figured I'd share what I've been playing with the past hour or so.
 

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That was the runaway coal train right? The one in the link seems to be talking about a passenger train, but I don't recall passengers. The one that stands out to me was the Coal Train in Cajon Pass (San Bernadino). Steep downgrade where the train failed a break test, then the breaks wouldn't engage and the train at a high speed 80-90mph(?) as it went into a curve that wasn't designed for those speeds. Jumped the track and slammed into houses.

There's been a few over the years at Cajon Pass, and it's a pretty notorious spot for runaway trucks too (Cajon & Grapevine are two big spots).
 
You wait an hr and this happens
Yup - had that happen 2 years ago. Thankfully I had my shots from earlier and I was just trying to catch up with the train for another set of photos, but others were not pleased. The train ran on the opposite tracks and then a freight train rolled through too. All we saw was smoke from our side.
 
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