March 7th Steam's up!

[Carruthers]

A few days ago I bought a second hand copy of the book 'Terence Cuneo, Railway Painter of the Century'. It includes a large number of his best paintings.

I was especially impressed by this work.

The Mightiest of the Mighty

A Union Pacific ‘Big Boy’ takes on coal and water at Harriman, Wyoming, before tackling the heavy grades of Sherman Hill.

Introduced in 1941, these 4-8-8-4, 594 ton locomotives were the largest ever built and were the equivalent of four conventional engines.

New track had to be laid to cope with their great weight and new turntables for their length.

In all, 201 were built of which six remain today. (1990)

Union Pacific Big Boy

Wiki suggests that 25 of the locos were built and not the 201 quoted in the book.

Terence Cuneo