Big Boy 4014 became more than a railroad spectacle as Peter Vazquez and Bob Savage followed its journey through Western New York and Hornell.
The conversation moved from the locomotive’s size, wartime purpose, and New York roots to Hornell’s Erie Railroad legacy, Benjamin F. Jones, Alstom’s modern rail work, and the families gathered along the tracks.
With live reports from Brian O’Neill, remarks from Mayor John Buckley, and reflections from Paul Welker, the hour became a meditation on work, memory, restoration, and whether America still teaches the virtues that once moved the nation forward.
Big Boy 4014. A nation can forget itself slowly.
Not all at once. Not in some dramatic collapse with warning bells and smoke on the horizon. More often, it forgets in quieter ways. It forgets the men who built the bridges. It forgets the shops where fathers worked. It forgets the tools, the rails, the calloused hands, the old depots, the dangerous labor, the schedules, the whistles, the discipline, and the dignity of work done before applause was expected.
Then, one day, something massive comes rolling through town and the memory wakes up.
Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 came through Western New York as more than a locomotive. It came through as a test of whether America still recognizes greatness when it sees it.
At 133 feet long and 1.2 million pounds, this restored 1941 steam giant is not a symbol that needs explaining to ordinary people. They understand it before the experts arrive. They bring their children. They bring their fathers. They stand along the tracks. They wait in the heat. They take pictures. They point. They remember.
That response matters because modern America is drowning in things that are temporary, disposable, digital, and thin. Big Boy is none of those. It is heavy. It is loud.
It was built for duty. It was built in New York by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady and delivered to Union Pacific during the World War II era. Union Pacific states that No. 4014 is the only operational Big Boy remaining and the world’s largest operating steam locomotive. That is not trivia. That is evidence. Evidence that restoration is possible.
Evidence that skill survives when people care enough to preserve it. Evidence that the past still has something to say to a nation too easily impressed by nonsense wrapped in modern language.
Hornell gave that lesson a local soul.
The Big Boy was not simply passing through any town. It was passing through a railroad town. Hornell carries rail history in its bones, through the Erie Railroad, the Erie Shops, the Hornell Erie Depot Museum, and generations of families whose lives were shaped by the work of building, repairing, maintaining, and moving America.
Mayor John Buckley described Hornell as a railroad town through and through, still tied to that tradition through Alstom and modern high-speed rail manufacturing. That detail matters. Hornell is not only preserving memory. It is still trying to build from it.
That is the issue underneath the romance.
America does not merely need nostalgia. Nostalgia without responsibility is just a rocking chair with better lighting. America needs continuity. It needs a living connection between what was built, what was lost, what was restored, and what must now be taught to the next generation.
Bob Savage’s family connection through Benjamin F. Jones brought that truth down from the abstract. Jones, remembered in family history as a supervising figure in the Erie Shops, represents a class of leadership America once understood well: men close enough to the machinery to respect the work, and close enough to the crew to carry responsibility.
That kind of leadership did not need a consultant, a slogan, or a personal brand. It needed competence. It needed trust. It needed results. That is one of the great missing pieces in American life today.
The country still talks endlessly about leadership, but too often it means visibility without weight. The old shop-floor model was different. The train either ran or it did not. The job was done right or people paid for it. Work had consequences. Standards mattered. Older men trained younger men. Skill was passed hand to hand, eye to eye, shift to shift. That is not backward. That is civilization.
The issue analysis is plain: America is facing a skills and labor crisis at the same moment it claims to want industrial renewal. The Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte warn that U.S. manufacturing may need as many as 3.8 million employees between 2024 and 2033, and that up to 1.9 million of those jobs could go unfilled if workforce challenges are not addressed. Sixty-five percent of manufacturers surveyed named attracting and retaining talent as their primary business challenge. That is not a minor workforce problem. That is a warning flare.
Rail tells the same story. Freight rail still accounts for roughly 40 percent of U.S. long-distance ton-miles, more than any other mode.
The Federal Railroad Administration describes the American freight rail network as nearly 140,000 route miles and widely regarded as one of the largest, safest, and most cost-efficient freight systems in the world.
Rail is not dead history. It is living infrastructure. It moves raw materials, food, energy, vehicles, chemicals, construction goods, and the supplies that make modern life possible while most people are busy pretending the shelves stock themselves.
This is why Big Boy No. 4014 matters.
It forces a question America would rather avoid: can a nation remain strong if it no longer honors the people who build, repair, carry, weld, wire, machine, drive, farm, inspect, and maintain the systems everyone depends on?
The crowd in Hornell answered in its own way. People came from across the region and beyond. Some came because they loved trains. Some came because their fathers loved trains. Some came because they knew they were witnessing something they might never see again. The event turned the city into a living classroom. Not a sterile classroom with fluorescent lights and a motivational poster sagging on the wall, but the old kind: the kind where history moves past you and demands that you pay attention.
That is where the spiritual warning enters.
Josh Turner’s “Long Black Train” was not written about Big Boy, Hornell, or the Erie Shops. It is a gospel warning about temptation, deception, and spiritual drift. Yet the contrast is too powerful to ignore. One train reminds America what it built when it honored discipline, skill, duty, and responsibility. The other warns what happens when people board the line of compromise, illusion, and decay.
That is the Vanbōōlzalness Crisis in motion.
It is the cultural sickness that tells a nation to forget its boundary stones, mock its builders, sever its children from memory, and call dependency compassion. It praises comfort while sneering at character. It celebrates consumption while ignoring production. It offers slogans where there should be standards. It treats work as punishment instead of formation.
Big Boy says otherwise.
The restored giant does not call America backward. It calls America back to the virtues that once moved it forward. Work. Duty. Craft. Memory. Family. Faith. Place. Responsibility. Those are not museum pieces. They are load-bearing walls.
If America wants restoration, it must stop pretending decay is destiny. A locomotive cannot be restored by denying rust. A city cannot be restored by denying disorder. A family cannot be restored by denying fatherlessness. A workforce cannot be restored by telling young people that skilled labor is second-class work. A nation cannot be restored by forgetting the men and women who kept its engines running.
Big Boy No. 4014 rolled through Western New York, but the question it left behind is larger than Hornell, larger than rail, and larger than one day of public wonder.
Will America only admire what previous generations built, or will it raise a generation strong enough to build again?
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Peter Vazquez:
This podcast is brought to you by Open Door Mission, restoring hope and changing lives. Visit opendoormission.com.
Mira la izquierda, mira la derecha, ¿qué ves? In a world that seems to change daily, what will you do next? Welcome to The Next Steps Show with Peter Vazquez, a starting point for discussion and a bit of direction.
Ladies and gentlemen, today we are going to follow Big Boy No. 4014 as it heads in a phenomenal direction through history. We begin with a sound older than the arguments of the hour: a whistle, a rumble, a steel giant moving through New York as if history itself found the tracks again.
Today, Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 is rolling through Western New York, not as a museum piece, but as living history.
Bob Savage:
That is exactly right. It is not a museum piece. It is a living, breathing thing. People have described steam engines that way, and when you look at the incredible majesty of this gigantic engine dating back to 1941, you understand why. It inhales, it exhales, it performs a function. It almost seems to have a soul.
You should see the photos of the crowds at Letchworth State Park. Absolutely immense. They are projecting about 10,000 people in Hornell for the arrival of Big Boy, in a city with a permanent population of around 9,000. It is going to be hectic, but we are going to bring it all to you. Brian O’Neill is on the scene down on Loder Street, right next to the Erie station, and he and Glenn, our team down at WLEA, are doing a tremendous job covering Big Boy’s arrival.
Peter Vazquez:
One hundred thirty-three feet long and 1.2 million pounds. That is huge. It was in Buffalo yesterday, and the pictures of people standing by just to catch the whistle are amazing.
Here is a fun little tidbit, Bob. About 22 years ago, I applied for a job with Union Pacific.
Bob Savage:
Really? Were you going to be on a train crew?
Peter Vazquez:
When you apply, you apply for different kinds of positions, but it was based on your skill set and what you presented. There was an assessment I had to take. If they hire you, you are picked up and gone. Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but the idea was that once you were hired, you were sent wherever they needed you.
Bob Savage:
Union Pacific designed Big Boy for its western routes, which are mountainous. Back in the early 1940s, steam was still the mode of power, but it was problematic. Every hundred miles or so, you had to re-coal this gigantic leviathan of an engine, and it required huge amounts of water.
The Southwest is not known for having lots of water, so they needed wells, infrastructure, and supply systems just to support these giant steam engines. It is no small wonder that the diesel-electric era came in. There was a big push to make the trip from Chicago to Los Angeles take less than 60 hours, which was what was required under steam.
When diesel-electric engines came in during the mid-to-late 1940s, that time was cut to about 39 hours because they did not have to constantly stop to refuel with coal and replenish water.
Peter Vazquez:
Although that created a big issue for the local economy when they switched from coal.
Bob Savage:
No question. Train crews were drastically reduced because far fewer people were required to operate the diesels.
Built in New York
Peter Vazquez:
Built in New York. That is the part I did not know, Bob. Preparing for this show was an eye-opening historical experience for me. It is something I probably would not have paid attention to before.
I looked through the media in Rochester proper, and I saw very little about this train coming through the area. There were a couple of mentions about when it was in Buffalo, but not the history and not the meaning. Not what it means for this big train that was built in New York and used out West.
Bob Savage:
It was not built in Albany, by the way. It was made by the American Locomotive Company, ALCO, in Schenectady.
Peter Vazquez:
Right. That is the conversation I am not seeing in the urban center. They are not talking about how these giants were built for duty, not comfort. They are not talking about how 25 of these were commissioned exclusively for Union Pacific, which employed a lot of people.
Bob, I believe one of those people was associated with you and your family through your grandfather, the great Benjamin F. Jones.
Bob Savage:
My maternal grandfather ran the Erie Shops in Hornell about a hundred years ago. That is where my mother grew up, and where her two sisters grew up. They all graduated from Hornell High School.
Peter Vazquez:
Is there anything we do not know about you, Bob? Every day I learn some new piece of history. You are tied into the story here.
Bob Savage:
Not me directly, but members of my family, certainly.
Peter Vazquez:
That is how roots are established. I searched and did not find anything specific with that name, but the Library of Congress does preserve the Historic American Engineering Record documentation of the Erie Railway Hornell Shop in Steuben County. Tell us about him. What did he mean to that history?
Bob Savage:
I never met him. He died before I was born. He was a colorful guy, very well liked, and the Erie Railroad moved him around a lot. The family lived not only in Hornell, but also in Rutherford, New Jersey; Buffalo; Rochester; and Marion, Ohio, which is where my mother was born and where the family was from.
Peter Vazquez:
I have been thinking about this since this topic came up. I do not know anyone personally who worked on a railroad, though I am sure somewhere along the line there were people connected to it. What a history, and what a drastically reduced industry in terms of human capital.
Your grandfather, on your mother’s side, represents the kind of forgotten leadership that does not trend online anymore. He represented an era that truly understood working hard to make a difference.
Bob Savage:
Those people still exist. They have migrated to other industries. When my grandfather was working at the Erie Shops, there was a relatively tiny automotive industry in the United States. People were driving Model T Fords and other crude vehicles on roads that were often not improved and not passable for large parts of the year.
The way you traveled was by rail. There were no airlines.
Peter Vazquez:
The rail industry shaped this nation. Even Seabreeze was connected to a train of sorts.
Bob Savage:
A trolley.
Peter Vazquez:
A trolley, but still transportation on rails. People did not own cars the way they do today. You walked, rode bikes, or used some kind of rail transportation.
Ladies and gentlemen, the lines are open. If you have seen Big Boy already, if you have video or audio, or if you have a comment, give us a call.
Fred just said the only place he has heard about Big Boy has been on WYSL and WLEA.
Live from the Hornell Erie Depot Museum
Brian O’Neill:
This is Brian O’Neill, once again down on Loder Street in Hornell at the Depot Museum, waiting for Big Boy. Big Boy is expected to arrive around 2:00 p.m. People are coming in from all over.
I am standing here with Jerry from Ulysses, Pennsylvania. Jerry, what are your thoughts on Big Boy?
Jerry:
I think it is great. I am interested in trains, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it.
Brian O’Neill:
Do you have toy trains?
Jerry:
I do not, but I have a brother-in-law who has a million of them. He should be here.
Brian O’Neill:
How many people do you think are here right now?
Jerry:
I would guess at least 2,000 or 3,000.
Brian O’Neill:
I am looking left to right, and the line is already impressive. Quite a few people are here. Thank you for coming.
History Moving Forward
Peter Vazquez:
I am heading down to Hornell today to see the beauty of our culture, and the story of a time that moved from greatness, through economic hardship, to where Hornell is today. Hornell is doing phenomenally well.
We are trying to get Mayor John Buckley on the line so he can give us a word picture of what he is seeing. That is a tremendous impact for a crowd like this to arrive in a relatively small city. The logistics behind it must have kept the mayor up for months.
But I think Big Boy’s whistle is not calling America backward. This is living history. It is calling us back to the virtues that move a nation forward.
Bob, I am glad you brought up your grandfather. I believe he represents a class of practical leadership America used to understand: men close enough to the machine to respect the work and close enough to the crew to carry responsibility.
When I see history moving this way, I get excited because it is an opportunity for leaders to stand up and say, “Listen, son. Listen, fellow employees. Let us take a second to look at American history and what built this country.”
That is what this big old train embodies. Yes, I called it a choo-choo train. Fine. It is a railroad. If you are 11 and under, you can call it a choo-choo train.
Mayor John Buckley Joins the Show
Peter Vazquez:
We have the mayor of Hornell, John Buckley, on the line. Mayor, what a big day for Hornell.
Mayor John Buckley:
It is a huge day, and thanks for having me on the show. It is gorgeous out. The sun is shining, the clouds are parting, and the Big Boy train is on its way.
Bob Savage:
We have heard projections of 10,000 people descending on Hornell. You have a city of roughly 9,000 people. Do you think the crowd is that size?
Mayor John Buckley:
I am walking through the corridor right now, affectionately referred to as ground zero at the Erie Railroad Depot. People are lined up on both sides of the street and both sides of the tracks. It is hard to gauge how many. I would definitely put it well over 1,000 and growing. Parking lots are filling up, and more people are coming down to the Erie Depot for a better view.
It is spread throughout the corridor. For those familiar with Hornell, the railroad basically cuts the city in half, so there are a lot of different vantage points and viewing areas throughout the entire city. It is concentrated near the depot, but it is spread into other areas as well.
Bob Savage:
Since we have some time before Big Boy arrives, I know the area you are describing because my granddad was the head of the Erie Shops about a hundred years ago. My grandmother had a lifetime pass on the Erie. She would go out to Ohio to see family members, and we would drive her down to Hornell and pick her up.
It was always a thrill to stand on that platform and watch the locomotive approaching. Even though it was diesel-electric by that time, and there were no big smoke belchers like Big Boy in that era, it was still a thrill.
Mayor John Buckley:
It really is amazing. For listeners who are not familiar with Big Boy, this was one of the trains constructed in the World War II era. This particular one was commissioned in 1941 and built in Schenectady, New York, so it is really a homecoming of sorts.
These trains were designed to pull large loads through the mountainous areas of the western part of the country, and to my knowledge, they have not returned since then. This is an exciting event, not just for Hornell, which has deep railroad history, but for New Yorkers and for people across the country fortunate enough to be near it and view it one final time.
Bob Savage:
It is historic in so many ways. This train has been making its way across the country. It was a derelict, fully and lovingly restored, converted to oil burning because you cannot get coal from the Southwest to the Northeast the way you once could. It has been emotionally charged from beginning to end.
Hornell has maintained its railroad heritage down through the years, has it not?
Mayor John Buckley:
Absolutely. Hornell is a railroad town through and through. We have nearly a 200-year tradition of rail history here. We are blessed to have Alstom as our largest manufacturer. They currently employ upwards of 800 people.
For those familiar with the Acela line through Amtrak, that is produced right here in the City of Hornell. In fact, Hornell is home to the only facility that builds high-speed rail in the continental United States. The rail tradition continues, even though it looks a little different than it did in my grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ days. It is still steeped in railroad tradition.
Bob Savage:
The days of getting a cinder in your eye while riding the railroad are gone, thankfully. Especially when you look at the interiors of these Alstom cars, which are remarkable in terms of luxury and beauty.
Mayor John Buckley:
Absolutely, and quality too. That is something that gets talked about: the level of quality being produced here in the city. Alstom has four different facilities scattered throughout the city. More recently, they built a shop just to produce the car shells themselves.
Previously, some of those car shells were produced in Europe, shipped over by boat, and then transported over land to Hornell. Now they will make those right here, move them from one facility to the next, and have the ability to sell to other companies throughout the United States and beyond. That is another huge feather in our cap, and I think they are very well positioned for the foreseeable future.
Brian O’Neill Reports from the Crowd
Bob Savage:
We have breaking news. Brian O’Neill is with us on the street.
Brian, you and Glenn down in WLEA land are doing a bang-up job covering this story.
Brian O’Neill:
Glad to do it. I would not miss it. It is amazing. I spoke with an official who said Union Pacific was estimating around 20,000 people today. Walking around, there are people here from Watkins Glen, Allegheny County, Penn Yan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Alabama. It is amazing how many people came here for this.
Bob Savage:
The mood sounds festive. It is great to see a crowd that swells the native population by 100 to 200 percent, and everybody is getting along.
Brian O’Neill:
It is a great feeling. People are tailgating and eating on the street. Marino’s restaurant does not have one empty seat. They were very nice to let me use an upstairs window to get some pictures. It is an amazing day for Hornell. A happy day for downtown Hornell.
Bob Savage:
Mayor, thank you for taking the time to talk with us on Next Steps on WYSL and WLEA. I will let you get back to doing what you do best, working with the people.
Mayor John Buckley:
Thanks for having me on.
Bob Savage:
That was Mayor John Buckley of the great city of Hornell. Brian O’Neill will have more about Big Boy and the big visit as it gets closer and closer. You can almost smell the smoke.
Freight rail accounts for roughly 40 percent of long-distance ton-miles in the United States of America.
Big Boy Day and Hornell Steamers
Bob Savage:
Big Boy Day in Hornell. Big Boy No. 4014 has already been through Letchworth State Park and is headed toward the Southern Tier. I believe they will stop in Silver Springs to take on water. Those steam engines needed a lot of water.
Peter Vazquez:
They did. That was one of the things that slowed them down on the trip west for passenger service and helped lead to their replacement by diesel-electric engines.
Bob Savage:
Turning from Hornell railroad history, we have Paul Welker, general manager of the Hornell Steamers baseball team, on the line. Paul, how are you doing today?
Paul Welker:
Good. It is a big day for Hornell. It is exciting to celebrate part of the rich history of the town I have called home for the last 25 years. There are a lot of people out and about, and I am excited to head down there myself and see the activities.
Bob Savage:
What are you seeing on the ground?
Paul Welker:
I am still at work, but I have been following everything on social media. You are seeing a lot of people milling about. I have school-age kids, and they got out of school early today because of traffic issues, since one of the schools is right by the tracks. Both of my kids are excited to be part of the festivities.
One thing I tell the baseball players who call Hornell home each summer is how rich the train history is here. The baseball connection to the Southern Tier and through New York goes back to the 1940s and 1950s, when train travel was how people got around from Hornell to Geneva to Olean and to smaller towns that had minor-league baseball. Many of those towns now have collegiate baseball league teams like we do.
The history is deep with trains. When Major League Baseball told us to change our name from the Dodgers, and we landed on the Steamers, the idea of having a prestigious steam engine like this come through town probably never crossed our minds. We were just trying to find another connection to the community. We considered names like the Steam Engines and Engineers, but we went with Steamers. It is really cool to have a day like today and be part of it.
Bob Savage:
A lot of people do not appreciate that one hundred years ago, there was not an automotive industry like we have had for the last several decades. There were not modern roads connecting cities. Roads in the 1920s would often be regarded as logging roads or wagon tracks. If you wanted to go from Hornell to Cleveland, New York, or Philadelphia, you took the train. There was no airline industry either.
Paul Welker:
Right. Where people are lining up today is next to the modern version of the rail tradition with Alstom and high-speed rail development. In Hornell, you have the old and the new. When Hornell was truly a railroad town, the population was larger than it is now. It was a hub because of the rail presence in the community.
Bob Savage:
We purchased WLEA a little over a year ago, and we are pleased to be carrying a game-of-the-week schedule for Hornell Steamers baseball. Paul wears all the hats, folks. He does everything but walk through the stands and sell you popcorn and hot dogs.
Paul Welker:
My wife and kids do that. We are really excited to be back on WLEA. I have been part of this franchise for nearly 25 years, and for many years every single night the games were on WLEA. Technology and ownership changes affected how we deliver the product, but we are excited to be calling the games on WLEA again.
Tomorrow is the next game we will have on the air. It should be a great night. It is one of my favorite days at the ballpark. We team up with local librarians for Baseball and Books. Any elementary-school-age child or younger who comes into the stadium will be greeted with books they can take home, many of them baseball themed. They will walk away with two to five books. Local librarians, whether from the school district or the community, are great partners. We expect a couple hundred elementary-school kids there.
If you cannot be there, I will try my best to paint a mental picture of what is going on.
Bob Savage:
Who are you playing tomorrow?
Paul Welker:
The Genesee Rapids, based out of Houghton University. We play at Houghton tonight, then come back here tomorrow for the second game of a quick two-game series. Hornellsteamersbaseball.com is where people can find schedules and information.
I do not want to take too much time from your coverage today, but thank you for covering such a cool event. I am excited that so many people will experience Hornell today, interact with people who live here, and appreciate that we have been a railroad town and that the railroad remains important to our community.
Bob Savage:
Paul Welker, general manager of the Hornell Steamers. Thank you for being with us, and good luck this season.
Paul Welker:
Thank you.
Labor, Manufacturing, and Work
Bob Savage:
WLEA turns 75 in September, and WYSL turns 40 next January. WLEA has been part of Hornell’s history since after World War II.
Peter Vazquez:
Ladies and gentlemen, Governor Kathy Hochul says things like she is the first mom governor and that she is taking the fight to your family. But the Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte warn that U.S. manufacturing could need as many as 3.8 million employees, with up to 1.9 million jobs potentially going unfilled.
One of the biggest problems these industries have, including rail, is recruitment: finding people who actually want to work.
More from the Hornell Crowd
Brian O’Neill:
This is Brian O’Neill down on Loder Street at the Hornell Erie Depot Museum, standing outside with a couple from Alabama. Originally, one of you is from the Hornell area?
Guest:
Correct. I lived in Canisteo for about 18 years.
Brian O’Neill:
You worked for Morrison-Knudsen and General Electric at one time. So you are an old train guy yourself?
Guest:
Yes.
Brian O’Neill:
What did you do?
Guest:
We rebuilt and built new trains. We did all sorts of work for the rail industry.
Brian O’Neill:
And you are here with Stacey from Alabama?
Stacey:
Yes. We have both been there for 30 years. This will be my first time seeing something like this. He has talked about it and showed me pictures, so this was spur of the moment. We decided Monday, came up yesterday, and will leave Saturday.
Brian O’Neill:
What a trip. Welcome to Hornell. Thank you for coming up.
Safety, Work, and Character
Peter Vazquez:
What a day, Bob.
You know, OSHA was established in 1970 to create broad workplace safety protections because the work on trains and the work in trades in general was hard and dangerous. But that work also created something. It created soul. It created character.
Bob Savage:
It certainly did.
Crowd Estimates and Community Atmosphere
Brian O’Neill:
We are once again on Loder Street in Hornell, standing next to a police car. I am trying to estimate how many people are here. I am with Mayor Buckley. Mayor, any guess?
Mayor John Buckley:
If I had to guess, I would say somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 right now.
Brian O’Neill:
The last numbers we heard, from someone who said they had spoken with Union Pacific, were that around 20,000 people could be here today. We are still a little ways out from the 2:00 hour, and looking around, there are people from across the East Coast. There are people from Virginia, Alabama, and all over.
The line of people with cameras and lawn chairs goes all the way from the police station to the museum. How far would that be?
Mayor John Buckley:
About a quarter mile or so.
Brian O’Neill:
So many people in the Maple City today, so many people here in Hornell to see Big Boy.
Bob Savage:
We want to thank Marino’s restaurant again for accommodating us so we can bring these reports. Brian, what time did you get there?
Brian O’Neill:
Around 9:30 this morning.
Bob Savage:
You must be baking in that sun. Mayor, do you think it will rain before 2:30?
Mayor John Buckley:
I talked to Mother Nature earlier in a conference call, and she agreed to cooperate with us, so I think we are in the clear.
Peter Vazquez:
That is one connected mayor. It is reflected in the city. Hornell is doing great these days, Mayor. Congratulations on the work you are doing.
Brian O’Neill:
It is 85 degrees here on Loder Street. If you are heading out, bring water and stay hydrated.
Peter Vazquez:
Brian, this display of history could not come at a better time as we approach America’s 250th. What is the sentiment there among the crowd?
Brian O’Neill:
It is a really nice feeling here today. Very upbeat. I was talking with the mother of one of the band members of Tin Lizard, a Hornell band. She is a nurse at St. James Hospital and is standing in the crowd cheering them on. They have original songs about trains, and they are playing outside the Hornell Erie Depot Museum, which is seeing enormous crowds in and out today.
Bob Savage:
Brian O’Neill from WLEA, our correspondent on the ground in downtown Hornell. He will continue reporting throughout the afternoon, even after The Next Steps Show wraps up. Brian, stay hydrated, stay safe, and stay off the tracks.
Brian O’Neill:
They say stay 25 feet away from the tracks. Thank you.
Whistle Stops and Big Boy’s Journey
Bob Savage:
The arrival of Big Boy is getting closer. It is called a whistle stop, a term that goes back to the old days of political campaigns. National candidates would make speeches from the rear of a passenger train, from a little balcony on the back of the club car. People would gather around, and the candidates would give their stump speeches. This was before television and radio. That is the kind of event you are seeing in Hornell today.
It will not be there long, but it is a rare and special opportunity to see this gigantic engine.
There is another Big Boy engine on the East Coast at Steamtown in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is not operable; it is a static display. But No. 4014 will be positioned alongside No. 4012, two Big Boy engines side by side, one operable and one not. No. 4014 is making its way to Philadelphia for America’s 250th celebration.
Peter Vazquez:
Here are some facts. Big Boy No. 4014 traveled 1,031,205 miles before it retired in December 1961. It was reacquired from the RailGiants Train Museum in Pomona, California, in 2013. In 2019, it helped celebrate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
No. 4014 was one of 25 Big Boys commissioned exclusively for Union Pacific. It is 133 feet long and weighs 1.2 million pounds.
What gets me is this: Big Boy No. 4014 and all 25 Big Boys began with New York skill. They began with New York steel, New York industry, and New York confidence. We have that history behind us.
This was a mode of transportation during the era of the Greatest Generation. Big Boy was not designed as a collectible. It was designed as a workhorse. It served a purpose in the days when all of us came together around God, country, and family.
If leaders today say they are fighting for families, then why is this kind of history not at the forefront when encouraging young people, regardless of race, to do better and get better?
Union Pacific is a great place to work. I know that because I once applied for a job there. I was willing to give up everything at the time to work for Union Pacific, which is a union-run organization.
Bob Savage:
A well-run union organization.
Peter Vazquez:
Ladies and gentlemen, restoration always turns memory into motion.
The question is whether we are going to take advantage of this opportunity, this history in motion, to look at our young people and say, “Mira, check this out.”
Hornell is not merely another stop for Big Boy No. 4014. Hornell is a railroad memory that teaches us what God, country, and family mean.
Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors.”
That is clear to me.
Be a leader. Be a leader. Be a leader.
God bless these United States of America, and do not let a second go by where you are not a voice for liberty. And down in Hornell, stay 25 feet away from the tracks. You do not want to get sprayed with steam.