Like the bellowing of an African bull elephant, the Union Pacific Big Boy steam locomotive announced itself Wednesday afternoon as it approached on the Norfolk Southern mainline from the east, after passing Tyrone and Bellwood, while a herd of expectant railfans waited on bridges, all the levels of the downtown parking garage, on the walkway behind the Railroaders Memorial Museum and Station Medical Center, in the museum yard, on balconies of the Housing Authority towers and of the roofs of Post Office buildings — standing, staring, holding up their cellphone cameras.

“Awesome,” said Jett Richardson, 7, of Huntington, W.Va., sitting on the shoulders of his father Jeremy, who was on the walkway behind the museum as the train passed, the boy echoing what he’d said 20 minutes earlier, when asked what he thought the actual Big Boy would be like, compared to videos he’d seen of the world’s largest operating steam locomotive.

Wednesday’s appearance downtown, consisting of a pass-through, then a back-up return on a different track, followed by a half-hour viewing opportunity between the pedestrian bridges, will be followed Thursday and Friday by a static viewing with shuttle bus access along a newly constructed spur next to the mainline behind the Altoona Adult Rehabilitation Center, followed by an exit to the west on Saturday, with a stop at the Horseshoe Curve, emergence from the New Portage Tunnel in Gallitzin and a half-hour viewing stop in Cresson — all part of a cross-country tour for the nation’s 250th birthday, highlighted by a July 4 visit to Philadelphia.

The sound of the Big Boy as it came to rest between the pedestrian bridges transported 85-year-old Patricia Burkey to her childhood “back in the day,” when steam locomotives plied the mainline and the spurs in the railyards “all day and all night,” Burkey said from her wheelchair on the 13th Street pedestrian crossover.

A crew member aboard a pullman car pulled by Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 holds a sign addressing local railfans on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

The Big Boy’s call was like a giant sounding a tuba, compared to the bugling of the everyday Norfolk Southern diesels that pass through town on the tracks.

It was Burkey’s birthday Tuesday, and all she wanted was to see the giant locomotive, said her granddaughter Ashlie Burkey of Altoona.

Rich Battista drove the three hours up from Auburn, Va., to see the Big Boy and was sitting on a camp chair behind the museum.

Battista runs the Toy Trains on Tracks website, and videos from that site showing layouts in his home are sufficiently realistic to require viewers to ask whether they’re seeing models or actual trains in real landscapes.

Battista had seen previously seen videos of the Big Boy, but then he’d seen the real train as it passed through in Lewistown earlier on Wednesday.

The Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 locomotive leads a passenger train under the Eighth Street Bridge on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

“I got goosebumps,” he said. “It’s completely different in person.”

Trains have been a lifelong obsession for Battista, who grew up in Mount Carmel.

His father and grand­father were both model train aficionados.

“I guess I had the gene,” he said.

He’s generally a fan of “massive machinery,” he said.

Railfans crowded the Altoona bus terminal parking garage, watching the Big Boy enter the station. Mirror photo by Colette Costlow

Family memories

Jackson Ault, 14, of Bellefonte, was standing behind the museum with his mother, Amanda.

Jackson’s late grandfather, Tom Ault, was into trains, and made connections with Jackson through that enthusiasm.

Born in the 1940s, Tom lived on a farm in Centre County, and the Nittany & Bald Eagle Railroad line ran past the property.

He also operated O-gauge models.

Railfans line up along the Norfolk Southern tracks near Altoona Pipe & Steel to see the Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 locomotive on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

He gave some of those models to his grandson.

“It snowballed from there,” Jackson said.

He and his grandfather would visit Neely’s Train Shop in Juniata together and they went together to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg.

Her father-in-law loved all his grandchildren and bonded with them over different interests, but trains provided the tie between him and Jackson — and one of Jackson’s cousins, according to Amanda

“That was their thing,” Amanda said.

Railfans photograph and wave at the Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 locomotive in front of Anytime Truck & Tire Service on Ninth Avenue on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Not to be missed

John Reed of Altoona also used to operate model trains, and wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to see the Big Boy, an opportunity unlikely to be repeated, Reed said.

“You gotta come see it,” he said. “Super, super neat.”

When asked if he was suffering from a case of “FOMO” — Fear Of Missing Out — his eyes went wide and he smiled.

“Ah, yeah!” he said.

More to come

The crowd that turned out to see the Big Boy was “very invigorating,” said the museum’s Executive Director Joe DeFrancesco.

Naturally, the enthusiasm for a western U.S. steam engine has driven local thoughts toward the museum’s own steam locomotive, the K4 No. 1361, whose restoration has been ongoing in fits and starts coupled with setbacks and forward lurches, along with repeated resolutions for making progress, for the past 35 years or so.

The Big Boy gives local people just a “little taste” for what it will be like when the K4 is “under steam again in a couple of years,” DeFrancesco said.

“This is what steam engines do,” DeFrancesco said, referring to the expectancy all around him, as the crowd anticipated the Big Boy’s arrival.

If an engine based thousands of miles away can fire that kind of enthusiasm, one built here in Altoona can do likewise and more, DeFrancesco suggested.

Hands-on expert

The Big Boy drew plenty of model train operators, and it also drew at least one operator of real trains: John Trent, who lives in Chambersburg in the summer and in Gilbert, Ariz., in the winter.

Trent, 75, was a fireman and an engineer for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad from 1973 until his retirement in 1993.

He ran a route from Winslow, Ariz., to Belen, N.M., a distance of 282 miles.

He hauled all sorts of freight, including coal.

One of the dicier aspects of the work was taking the heavy coal trains — which could weigh a collective 13,000 tons — down a 2% to 3% grade.

It required care not to mismanage the air brake system.

Such mismanagement could occur if the engineer applied the air brakes fully, then released them, then applied them fully again, potentially setting up a loss of pressure — and risking a “runaway train.”

Trent came to Altoona with members of his family in service of his fascination with engineering — and “how things are built and (how they) look,” said his brother-in-law Jeff Ridgeway.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

The crew of the Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 locomotive drive into Altoona on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Rainfans watch the Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 train drive back to Rose Yard on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Rainfans watch the Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 train drive back to Rose Yard on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

Big Boy passes underneath I-99 as it approaches the Tyrone Railroad Station on Wednesday afternoon. Mirror photo by Michael Boytim

Fans of Big Boy were able to take a ride on an amusement park-style train through the streets of Tyrone prior to Big Boy arriving. Food trucks and vendors were also available. Mirror photo by Michael Boytim