"It's kind of an emotional experience for us, because people are so excited to see the locomotive," Ed Dickens, who leads Union Pacific's heritage operations, told CNN affiliate WEAU. He said the joyful crowds made the 2½ years of work on the locomotive worthwhile.
The 600-ton locomotive left Butler, Wisconsin, at 8 a.m. Friday en route to Chicago, Trains magazine says.
Union Pacific's schedule says the Big Boy will sit on display in West Chicago for events through the weekend. It'll then head west to Rochelle, Illinois, on Tuesday morning and will traverse Iowa, with stops that include Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.
By August 2, the train will be in Omaha, Nebraska, for the weekend, and it'll spend the first half of the week making stops in Nebraska on the way back to its original perch at the Union Pacific Steam Shop in Cheyenne on the morning of August 8.
Union Pacific is posting updates on the train's location on its Twitter feed.
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