Union Pacific announced on Tuesday that 4-8-8-4 “Big Boy” 4014 will travel from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Denver and back in July. This brief trip will be the locomotive’s only public outing this year, but the railroad promised it would “return to the rails in a big way in 2026 to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.”

The locomotive will be joined by UP 1616, the recently painted SD70 that pays tribute to President Abraham Lincoln. The excursion will depart from Cheyenne, Wyo., at 10 a.m. on Thursday, July 17, and stop in Greeley, Colo., at approximately 11:30 a.m. The train will layover in Denver on Friday before returning north on Saturday, July 19. It will again stop in Greeley between 8:30 and 8:50 a.m. There will be no public access to the locomotive in Cheyenne or Denver. 

The railroad is also auctioning four cab rides aboard the locomotive to benefit the Union Pacific Museum. For more information, visit rareauctions.com/upm. —Justin Franz