Altoona gets massive tourism boost from Big Boy visit

Big Boy visit draws 100,000 to area

State College routinely draws 100,000 people several times a year to watch big boys play football for Penn State.

Between Wednesday and Saturday last week, Altoona drew about 100,000 people to watch a single Big Boy -- the world's largest operating steam engine -- pull into town, pose at Norfolk Southern's Rose Yard for two days, then travel to the Horseshoe Curve, where it posed again for half an hour before heading west on the NS mainline.

The event's unspooling was smooth as the rails on which the behemoth rolls and the area's management of the Big Boy visit elicited widespread praise -- praise that city Mayor Matt Pacifico bestowed on others and accepted himself.

"I was blown away by the exceptional planning and execution," wrote Tom Parkins of Delaware on the mayor's Facebook page. "Simply put, this was the finest mega event I have ever attended."

"Everybody came together and did their roles perfectly," Pacifico told the Mirror on Monday. "I couldn't be any more proud of the job we all did to welcome visitors from all over."

Of the 100,000 people collectively in attendance at the events around town, 75,000 were from outside the area, according to City Manager Christopher McGuire, citing figures given him by a railroad official.

County Commissioner Dave Kessling helped establish the approach to the event months before with a "greenlight" for staffers "to make it work," according to Steve McKnight, CEO of Altoona-Blair County Development Corp.

The prep for the Big Boy turned out to be "a wonderful collaboration" among a long train of agencies, according to Cris Fredrickson, operations and training coordinator for the county Department of Emergency Services.

Those agencies included her department and first responders -- fire, police and EMS -- from all the municipalities through which the Big Boy passed; municipal emergency coordinators; Norfolk Southern; Union Pacific; the Salvation Army; the Pennsylvania Game Commission; PennDOT; Discover Blair County; ABCD; state police; the Blair County Sheriff's Department; the Altoona Water Authority; and the county's GIS department, according to Fredrickson and others.

There were two-hour meetings every two weeks for two months, Fredrickson said.

Participants at those meetings held other more localized meetings and shared the results with the larger group, according to Fredrickson and McGuire.

"This was a great opportunity to showcase what teamwork looks like," McGuire said.

Not only did the coordination among all the agencies help ensure that the event ran smoothly, but it also helped establish relationships that will help in the case of a widespread local crisis, including assurance that the area's "incident command" system works, McGuire said.

It's not ideal when officials come together to deal with a big emergency and they're getting to know one another for the first time, McGuire said.

All eyes on K4

The Big Boy visit has put more pressure on the Railroaders Memorial Museum to finish its answer to Big Boy -- the K4 1361 steam engine -- which has been in the process of rehabilitation for 34 years.

"The overwhelming feedback was to get the K4 done," said museum Executive Director Joe DeFrancesco.

The museum needs two more years for work on the K4 that will cost $2.5 million -- $1 million of which is already in hand, an additional $750,000 of which is pledged and another $750,000 of which needs to be raised, according to DeFrancesco.

Museum leaders are planning for an ambassador and educational train that the K4 would pull throughout the state, with five former Pennsylvania Railroad baggage cars carrying exhibits and and five former PRR coaches carrying passengers.

At the Big Boy event, McKnight encountered railfans who told him they'd be back when the museum gets the K4 going again.

"That is not an empty promise, I think," McKnight said.

When that happens, there will be "a lot to emulate" from the way Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern handled the Big Boy visit, particularly the way they made it widely "accessible," DeFrancesco said.

During the Big Boy visit, about 10,000 people came to the museum, in front of which the big locomotive first went on display, just after its arrival Wednesday.

That figure includes about 7,500 paid visitors, DeFrancesco said.

The norm for a week in July is about 350 paid visitors, he said.

The museum prepared for the Big Boy broadly -- from being "completely swamped to no one showing up," DeFrancesco said.

It turned out that visitation at the museum was "right in the middle -- in the sweet spot," DeFrancesco said.

From the museum's perspective, the Big Boy visit was an unqualified success, and he is full of gratitude for it, and for everyone who contributed to it, according to DeFrancesco.

The popularity of the Big Boy and the area's competent handling of its visit suggests that the area should reprise the annual Railfest, said Pacifico and, separately, Councilman Jesse Ickes -- who said maybe such an event could be held every two years.

The admiration expressed for many local features by out-of-town visitors he encountered made him realize that he takes such features for granted, said City Councilman Dave Butterbaugh.

The kindness of city police and firefighters to event attendees was a pleasure to behold, said former railroad worker and regular City Council meeting attendee Dan Casey.

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