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Steam fans flock to Belle Plaine
Hundreds flood small town to see Big Boy
BELLE PLAINE — Midwesterners gathered across Iowa last week to see Union Pacific’s steam engine, Big Boy No. 4014, on its tour through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
Some followed the train from stop to stop. Others drove to nearby towns or stopped along highways and bridges to watch it pass.
Mike Pincer and his wife Lanna drove to Belle Plaine from their home in Montezuma Thursday to see Big Boy at the Ninth Avenue crossing. The train stopped there for about 15 minutes.
“It’s a rare bird, you know, and you don’t see a steam train very often,” said Mike.
“Last time we saw it, it was here,” said Mike. “I took some shots here, but then I headed for Chelsea.”
“And it’s a great day for it,” said Lanna. The skies were partly cloudy Thursday and the temperature was in the 70s.
Karen White, of Kirksville, took her son Nick, a 30-year-old with autism, to Belle Plaine to see the steam engine. “He loves trains,” said Karen. “And so this is his thing. He follows it on the internet. When it gets close, we follow it.”
Last year Karen and Nick saw Big Boy in Sedalia, Missouri, said Karen. “In Sedalia, we were right up to the tracks, and they stopped for a long time, and he got a good look at it.”
Autistic people seem to love trains, said Karen.
Al Cap, of Holmdel, New Jersey, sat on a hill overlooking the tracks. “I’ve got a brother in Iowa City, so it was a good excuse to come see him,” said Cap.
Cap’s brother sent him a newspaper clipping announcing that Big Boy was stopping close to Iowa City, “so we planned a trip,” Cap said.
Cap has seen a Big Boy steam engine at a museum in Stanton, Pennsylvania, but he’d never seen one moving. He had a video camera with him in Belle Plaine to capture that moment.
Cap said he’s always been fascinated by steam locomotives.
Casey Pierce, of Deep River, has a daughter who lives in Belle Plaine, so the town is familiar to him. The former Deep River mayor said he’s always liked trains, and he’s never seen Big Boy. “I’ve seen pictures,” he said.
Pierce’s wife spends time on the computer and saw that Big Boy was stopping in Belle Plaine. “I didn’t have nothing to do today,” Cap said, so he drove over.
Liam Mocon, wearing a blue and white striped engineer’s hat, waited with his grandfather, Paul Mocon, of Marengo, for the steam engine.
“I have an old Lionel train collection, and he really likes it,” said Paul. He’d never seen Big Boy before.
Paul heard that officials expected about 1,000 people in Belle Plaine.
The Brenneman and Sippy families had a picnic lunch while waiting for the engine to show up. “I grew up in Swisher,” said Grace Sippy, but she and Wyatt Brenneman and their children Bridget and Oscar now live in Robbinsdale, Minnesota.
Tom Sippy has seen Big Boy on a previous trip across the state, he said. “I saw it just west of Fairfax on its way east.” His wife, Jean, is from Belle Plaine, said Sippy, so the family was returning to familiar territory to see the steam engine.
“We’ve been to many train museums,” said Grace, but seeing a moving steam engine was reason enough to drive to Iowa.
“This was a unique opportunity,” said Sippy. The family could see Belle Plaine again and visit family at the same time.
The train arrived about an hour late, just as rain started to fall, but the drizzle didn’t deter the crowd from taking video and photos with cameras and cellphones.
Twenty-five Big Boys were built during World War II, according to Union Pacific’s website, but only eight survived. No. 4014, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, is the only Big Boy still in operation.
