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The National Railroad Museum - Green Bay, WI

A steam locomotive cab. At the bottom center the firebox doors are open and you can see the bricks inside. Attached to the rest of the gray boiler structure has various sizes of red faucets
The cab view of Big Boy #4017

It took a few days to get from Scranton, PA all the way to Green Bay. I considered seeing Niagara Falls and then cutting through part of Canada, going across Michigan and then taking a ferry into Wisconsin. I ended up not doing that because I came out to see trains, and going that route would take two days anyway. The ferry was a 4-hour ride, but it took an hour to get on and another to retrieve your car after the fact.

Instead, I drove to Elkhart, IN and spent the night. The next morning, I had a lovely breakfast at a small Amish restaurant, then saw the New York Central museum, before continuing on through Chicago. The NYC museum was small, so I decided to hit the Illinois Railroad Museum as well, which turned out to be a great choice, despite not having a ton of time there. Chicago traffic was murder. It didn't help that I took a wrong turn on my navigation's "shortcut" suggestion, and ended up costing myself a significant amount of time.

I'll do write-ups on both museums in a later installment. I wanted to move on to the Big Boys.

I arrived at The National Railroad Museum on Friday the 13th to find ... a PAW Patrol event. Amusing but fine. The only downside was I didn't get video of 4017. One of the characters was stationed right in front of it. I got plenty of pictures, so the video will have to be a slide-show. Special thanks to the nice woman who had an extra ticket (her husband was either sick, or sick of PAW Patrol) and let me get in free, including a train ride; and the train conductor, who chatted with me about what I was doing, and gave me some more adult versions of the museum history. They're building a beautiful new exhibit hall along the river at this museum. Since my sister live nearby, I plan to visit it again.

A red diesel locomotive "Green Bay Round 315" in front of a glass building under construction
A portion of the new exhibit hall behind this lovely ALCO C430 Locomotive

One thing I liked about this museum is how much of their equipment is protected from the elements. It makes sense in Green Bay. Hard to be open in the winter if you can't come inside. The main exhibit hall has several beautiful pieces, including the #4017. While even the less exciting stuff is in a decent barn. They have a wide variety of Steam Power from various railroads that were common in the region.

I mentioned in the Saint Louis post my love for the GM Aerotrain. They have one in Green Bay as well. There's just something about the train that looks like it stumbled in from a Jetson's episode.

A silver locomotive that looks like it came out of the Jetsons. It has a red streak down the side and a badge that says "Rock Island". The cab sits on top almost like a car with a long hood
The GM Aerotrain #2

Another one of my favorites that several museums have, including Frisco, and Elkhart is a Pennsylvania GG 1. It's always a little sad since these were the best hope for the rollout of electrification that never happened in the US. The National Railroad Museum's exhibit looks the best of any I've seen before, though the interior could use some love.

A brown electric locomotive with a gold stripe. The nose is high with a single round headlght at the top. The pantograph is raised
The front of GG1 #4890
A few from the engineer's window of GG1. The interior is gray and green with dust and wires
Interior cab view of the GG 1

The unique piece in Green Bay of all the places I visited is General Eisenhower's personal train used in England in WWII. They have the Dwight D. Eisenhower LNER A4 locomotive as well as several pieces of the train.

A green streamlined steam locomotive. The gold number plate on the front says 60008. The gold title on the side says "Dwight D. Eisenhower"
LNER 60008 the Dwight D. Eisenhower
The green side of a locomotive tender. There's a red dragon holding a locomotive wheel standing on a gold crown the logo is in a gold circle. On either side of the circle reads "British" and "Railways" outlined with a gold border
The British Railways logo on the side of the Eisenhower's tender
A wood paneled interior of a plush lounge car. The shades are drawn across the windows. The carpet is tan. There are two tan lounge chairs in the foreground with a lamp between them. There's two red lounge chairs in the background with another lamp.
Interior workroom inside the Eisenhower train

Not part of the same train but with the same theme, I learned that after the war, the French sent a boxcar to each US state, filled with gifts of gratitude. The museum holds the Wisconsin boxcar.

A gray boxcar with a red white and blue banner across it, along with several family crests. The words on the banner say "Gratitude Train"
The Wisconsin boxcar from the French "gratitude train"

Of course, the star of my trip can't be ignored. I couldn't find a ton of unique information on #4017 other than it was the among the first batch of Big Boys produced. (There's only one survivor from the second batch.) Like the other Big Boys it pulled heavy trains over Sherman Hill in Wyoming and was retired from service in 1959.

A gray and black steam locomotive with whitewhalled wheels. The number board reads X4017
Big Boy #4017
A black steam locomotive with a silver boiler and a forward headlight. A sheild under the headlight says "Union Pacific 4017"
A better forward view. I like the white walled wheels and the lit headlight

In all, the National Railroad Museum is well worth your time. Thanks for reading.

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Jamie Larson
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