My name is Dan, and I am a railfan based mainly on Pan Am Railways’ Districts 2 and 3. Initially with the announcement of Union Pacific’s “Great Race to Promontory” excursion for Spike150 celebrations, I figured there’d be no way I could attend the hundreds of thousands of other railfans and enthusiasts out chasing the inaugural run of UP “Big Boy” #4014 after its restoration. Fortunately for me, the stars seemed to align and together with the work of my father we were able to book a trip to head west and chase the excursion from Evanston, WY to Ogden, UT and back. With everything seemingly in place, the wait lasting several months would begin. A few bumps, good and bad revolved around hotel changes to a new GH5 camera for 4K 60 FPS recording to news that UP “Living Legend” #844 would be doubleheading behind #4014 hit us and as before we knew it, it was time for us to fly west. Arriving in Evanston on the evening of Tuesday May 7th, 2019, we set our alarms for early to go claim our first spot for the chase. Under heavy, almost horizontal blowing rain, the first hints of steam could be seen in the horizon from the private crossing in Wyuta, UT we went to. An immaculate sight indeed, the historical train thundered by with #4014 blowing its haunting whistle. Never would I have imagined seeing an operational “Big Boy”, let alone on the UP Transcontinental Route with #844 in trail. It was incredible. From Wyuta we passed the train in thick highway railfan traffic in Emory, UT, just in time to get a shot of the train coming through the infamous Echo Canyon into the town of Echo, UT. With the train stopping in Echo, we leapfrogged the train to a bridge crossing the Weber River in Croydon, UT. Old bridge and locomotive alike, it was a cool sight. Then we went to a crowded road bridge in Morgan, UT, with plenty of time to spare with the train stopping again in Morgan Center. A manifest blocking people on one side, we were fortunate enough to be on the correct side to see the train in style. Traffic was getting worse and worse nearing Ogden, but we somehow were able to beat the excursion one final time to the yard entrance in Ogden, before seeing the thing one final time backing up out of the way of the main line. This concluded the first day of the chase, but it would pick up again on Sunday May 12, 2019, Mother’s Day. After some successful little railfanning missions during this waiting period such as the Deseret Power Railway, we woke up early on that beautiful Mother’s Day and got ahead of the thicket of railfans to our first spot at another private crossing in Morgan. In awesome morning light, the train finally rounded the corner as they stormed up to another stop in Morgan Center with the mountains providing a background. An unusually long stop in Morgan Center allowed us to beat it to an astonishingly crowded bridge and tunnel shot in East Morgan, where the train would come with short notice. With it being the weekend and all, traffic chasing the train was very bad, making the fact that they made another long stop in Echo good for us to get ahead of the train for one final shot. Setting up on the dusty Wasatch RD in Croydon, we would get a shot atop a little hill we scouted overlooking the tracks and I-80. The train steamed around the corner with a large crowd of railfans pacing it, making for a cool shot. With no way to beat the train to Evanston, their final stop for the day, we decided to just go in order to get some final pictures with everyone else of the incredible sight. We would fly back the next day, but this was certainly an opportunity I will never forget and always be thankful for. Congratulations to Ed Dickens and company for getting #4014 ready for the big trip and for making everything happen! This is my one hundred and ninety-sixth video of many more to come, so please feel free to like, comment, and subscribe.