Audience members wait for the arrival of Big Boy No. 4014 as it enters Coffeyville.

It was 3 p.m. Saturday, and they were waiting at the Coffeyville depot. Parents with babies in strollers. Older folks, some using walkers. Young people with their coffee. Couples with curious dogs. High-spirited youth who scrambled to collect leftover railroad spikes from rocky areas along the tracks. Locals and out-of-towners, a few setting up lawn chairs and settling in. People who had chased the train as it made previous stops in Oklahoma. The gathering had begun.
The cause of all this excitement was the anticipated arrival of Union Pacific’s grand old steam locomotive, Big Boy No. 4014. One of 25 Big Boy locomotives built for the UP Railroad, No. 4014 was in operation from 1941-61 and logged over 1 million miles. In 2013, UP bought back No. 4014 from the RailGiants Museum in Pomona, Calif. The train was then relocated to Cheyenne, Wyo., for restoration and returned to service last May in honor of t the 150thanniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

(Read more: Kansas Transportation)