BlueBrixx Locomotive USA 4884 Big Boy Set 102921

BlueBrixx's Locomotive USA 4884 "Big Boy" is built from 1,349 blocks, measuring 85 cm long, 7 cm wide and 9 cm high. Designed by Alex, released 2019. No stickers. Note that the parts come without bag separation.

The largest steam locomotives ever built

Union Pacific ordered them for one specific problem: Sherman Hill, a long climb in Wyoming where trains had to be split or double-headed, which cost time and crews.

The answer was a locomotive with two sets of driving wheels under one enormous boiler, the front set hinged so the whole machine could take a curve. The wheel arrangement is 4-8-8-4, which is where the class number 4884 comes from, and the name came from an unknown shop worker who chalked "Big Boy" on a smokebox during construction. Union Pacific kept it.

Twenty-five were built between 1941 and 1944. At roughly 40 metres with tender and around 540 tonnes, they remain the largest and heaviest steam locomotives ever put into service anywhere.

They pulled 3,600-tonne freight trains over the mountain without help, which is precisely what they were for and essentially all they ever did.

One of them still runs

Number 4014 was retired in 1961 and spent fifty years in a Los Angeles museum. Union Pacific bought it back in 2013, towed it to Cheyenne, and spent five years rebuilding it — converting it to burn oil rather than coal, because nobody supplies locomotive coal any more.

It steamed again in May 2019 and now tours the American west. It is the only operating Big Boy in the world, and the largest working steam locomotive anywhere.

Before you start

85 centimetres is longer than most shelves, and the parts arrive unsorted rather than in numbered bags. Sorting by colour and shape into trays before starting is worth the half hour on a set this size.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,349 · Designer: Alex · No stickers · No bag separation
Model dimensions: 85 × 7 × 9 cm (33.5 × 2.8 × 3.5 in)