Doggone. The train fans here will appreciate the frustration.
The Big Boy locomotive will pass through Greeley, CO about 40 miles from me in about 3 hours. It's the only Big Boy in operation, the largest steam locomotive every built, and it's finishing a national tour today, heading north of me about 55 miles to Cheyenne, WY for storage.
In the past 12 hours we have gotten 16+ inches of snow, and it's still falling vigorously. Getting that 40 miles east to the tracks may or may not be practical today, but I REALLY want to see that Big Boy go past. Traffic warnings are out, flights are canceled, businesses are closed everywhere, and the roads are questionable. Estes Park which is nearby but up in the mountains got around 2.5 feet of snow in the past 16 hours. Roads to the east where the Big Boy will travel are described as "blizzard conditions" with slick roads.
I know I CAN get there - I have a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee with good snow tires. The question is whether I should navigate the other vehicles and closed roads out there. Roads are pretty bad, and the idiot factor of other drivers can't be ignored.
We'll probably get another 3-6 inches of snow before mid-afternoon, as it's not slowing down a bit.
Yesterday my neighbor and I drove east to the tracks paralleling Highway 85 in Colorado, thinking the train would pass in the late afternoon. Unfortunately it stopped in Denver. We found the pages at
http://up.com with its schedule after we made it to the tracks. Didn't realize it was coming north today, not yesterday.
I lived in Denver in 1973 when UP donated one of the five remaining Big Boys to the Forney transportation museum there.
https://www.forneymuseum.org/The locomotive and tender together weigh more than ONE MILLION pounds! I had never seen "one million" ANYTHING before that locomotive! It's more than 2 stories tall. A true behemoth, as Mark and many others here can attest.
I've been to the Forney museum in its new location and climbed on the Big Boy there, and it's like climbing a house. It's the most impressive mechanical device I've ever seen...and I've visited NASA sites, too.
Here's a feature on the Big Boy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=qrqzaSDiM-A&feature=emb_logoDoggone it!! There's only ONE that's still in operation, and no telling when it will be out of storage again. I'm inclined to give it a shot regardless of the weather. I've driven through stuff as bad as this in vehicles that weren't nearly as capable as the Jeep.
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