Earlier this week, the Denver Post announced the end of its Cheyenne Frontier Days special from Denver to Cheyenne each July. The train was the last annual mainline steam excursion in the nation. UP has said Big Boy No. 4014 will tour other parts of the UP system after the trip from Cheyenne to Ogden. If there are public excursions with the locomotive, they will sell like wildfire. 

The partnership between the Denver Post and the Union Pacific railroad has ended due to the railroad’s utilization of its historic rail equipment in 2019 and beyond. This event started in the early 1900s and as of 2018, The Denver Post, took 700+ ticketed passengers up the rails on a steam engine train to Cheyenne from Denver for a grand ol’ day at Cheyenne Frontier Days. Train enthusiasts from across the country and the Denver metro area came to experience a day of fun and the joys of riding a train pulled by the only operating steam engine in the country, the Union Pacific 844. The day included food and fun including tickets to the Daddy Of ’em All rodeo.