Steam & Excursion > Lettering a Big Boy

For those of you who might have been wondering how you apply the lettering to a steam locomotive, Ed Dickens from UP Steam demonstrates on Big Boy 4004 in Holliday Park in Cheyenne.

First he masked out the general boundaries where the lettering will go. Now, he's applying frisket film with a spray gun to the side of the cab.

Nathan Beauheim

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Now he's used a paper template and a chalk bag to outline the letters and started cutting the mask out with an Xacto knife. He's cut the 4004 lettering and is working on the small lettering underneath.

Nathan Beauheim

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The lettering is all cut out now and ready for paint. The splotch of masking tape to the right is where the "U.P." lettering goes that we realized we left out earlier. We decided to leave that off until later when we had time to do it right.

Nathan Beauheim

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Painting the letters silver.

Nathan Beauheim

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Good stuff, Nathan. Thanks for this. Am anxious to see the finished product!

John

All finished with the masking pulled off. The meaning of the small letters is:

4-8-8-4-1 is the locomotive class (First order of 4-8-8-4's)
68 is the driver diameter
23 3/4 23 3/4 / 32 is the bore and stroke of the front and rear cylenders
540 is the weight on drivers in thousands of pounds
MB is the type of stoker

Does anyone have a good reason why a Big Boy wasn't a FEEF class, rather than 4-8-8-4? UP Challengers have the same mystery: they're 4-6-6-4 classes, rather than FSSF, but the Northerns are FEF and preserved 2-10-2 5511 is a TTT.

Nathan Beauheim

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Shot of the finished product. We've still got a little work to do up front. We're going to fabricate a new number plate shield from sheet metal, change the train boards up top to X4004, and add the numberboards next to the headlight.

Nathan Beauheim

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Thanks for taking the time to post this series. That is one of the best park locomtives I've ever seen.

Jim

nathan314 Wrote:

> Does anyone have a good reason why a Big Boy
> wasn't a FEEF class, rather than 4-8-8-4? UP
> Challengers have the same mystery: they're 4-6-6-4
> classes, rather than FSSF, but the Northerns are
> FEF and preserved 2-10-2 5511 is a TTT.

Looks like UP was a little inconsistent in their use of steam locomotive classes. Kratville's Motive Power of the Union Pacific has a drawing of a Pacific that is classed P-77 (for Pacific, 77" drivers, due to the SP influence in the Harriman days?), and a 2-10-2 that is indeed called a TTT. The roster in the book seems to give all stats except for the class.

That book refers to most locomotives only by the number series, and few photos are clear enough to read the small cab lettering. Same story re: 2-8-0's, but one photo shows a class "C". (Maybe Ten-wheelers were class T?) A cab shot of 4-12-2 9505 shows the class as U.P., which is appropriate because they were called "Union Pacifics."

Eureka, on page 178 is a tractive effort table, which lists these classes: 2-8-8-0, MC-57 (Mallet Compound?); 2-10-2, TTT-63; 4-8-2 MT-73; 2-8-2 MK-63; 2-8-0 C-57; 4-6-0, T-69; 4-4-2, A-81.

Speaking of steam locomotive classes, did the Santa Fe ever use anything but the "class engine" number? I.e., 2900 class, 3776 class, etc.?

Walt

There is a photo of Ed Dickens lettering the 844 with this same method in the New UP Steam Cheyenne Heritage booklet. This is but one of his many talents.