ROCHELLE — The Union Pacific Railroad’s Big Boy No. 4014 train engine will return to Rochelle this fall for the weekend of Sept. 7-8, City of Rochelle Director of Community Engagement Jenny Thompson said. 

The Big Boy No. 4014 train engine made an appearance for a day in The Hub City at Railfan Park in July 2019 and drew large crowds. Big Boy 4014 will be on display for Union Pacific employees and their families on Saturday, Sept. 7, and on display to the public on Sunday, Sept. 8. The Saturday event will be held at Union Pacific’s Global III in Rochelle. Thompson said the Sunday public viewing venue is yet to be determined, but will likely take place at Global III as well. The city will be meeting with the UP near the end of July to finalize details such as location, time and parking.

“The number of people who came to see the train in 2019 was unbelievable,” Thompson said. “We weren't sure what to expect with visitors when it came here. We opened Railfan Park at 6 a.m. that day and people were ready to get in and claim their spot the moment we opened. Kiwanis Golden K was there selling hot dogs and sold out before the train even arrived. We sold out of t-shirts. We're excited to have it back and to have a better idea of what to expect this time. There will be a lot of people here. There were people who followed the train into town and followed it out of town last time. People were lining the tracks for miles last time towards Creston and Ashton.” 

Since 2019, the city and Railfan Park staff have fielded questions from trainspotters on when Big Boy 4014 will be returning to Rochelle. The UP sets the schedule for the train’s appearances, and the city recently got the news when its fall schedule was released.

Thompson said the city is excited to embrace having Big Boy 4014 in town this fall and is grateful to the UP for recognizing that Rochelle is a hotbed for train watching. Railfans in a multi-state area converge on Rochelle to do their trainspotting.

In 2019, Big Boy 4014 spent time in Chicago before coming to Rochelle. That won’t be the case this fall, as Rochelle will technically be its Chicagoland stop, Thompson said. If the public viewing takes place at Global III, the city plans to ask the UP about setting up an information booth at the event on the city’s amenities, along with the possibility of local food trucks and restaurants setting up there and a shuttle bus service.

“That will be awesome to have all of those people coming into town,” Thompson said. “I've been told that hotels in town that weekend are all booked up already. We're excited for our local businesses that weekend with having so many visitors to town. We'll be doing special things that weekend like selling special commemorative merchandise at Railfan Park.”

During July 2019 when Big Boy 4014 was in town for a day during the week, the city saw a $7,260 increase that month from the previous year’s July in hotel motel tax revenue. That money goes back into community events and things like funding the museum, golf course, Railfan Park and Lincoln Highway Heritage Festival.

With the train being in town this year on a weekend, Thompson anticipates that businesses will be full and busy for multiple days. 

“We hope our businesses will go all out and open their doors and have special events and be ready to show off and bring these people back to Rochelle in the future and keep them coming back to Rochelle,” Thompson said. “We want to show them our downtown, shops, restaurants, Chicagoland Skydiving Center and Kennay Farms Distilling. We have quite a lot to do for a small midwestern community. We're excited to show all of that off and invite these visitors to spend time here and to come back in the future.”

While Big Boy 4014 may not be visiting Railfan Park specifically this time around, the city still anticipates a busy weekend Sept. 8-9 at the park it owns that houses the unique diamond where the UP and BNSF railroads intersect. In recent years the city has utilized hotel motel tax dollars to completely rehabilitate its gift shop exterior and put in new bathrooms, a new deck and a handicap-accessible ramp and new retail doors on the building. Future plans for the facility are in the works as well. 

“We're all in on embracing the number-one reason people come to Rochelle, which is trainspotting,” Thompson said. “That weekend will be all hands on deck for the city. We'll have to step up our public safety and public works efforts and there's a lot of planning and some expense that will go into it. We're pleased to do that to welcome all these visitors to our community and give our local business owners the boost they deserve.”