Visit Cheyenne 8-4-2017
Rare public tours of the Union Pacific Steam Shop and the Big Boy engine under renovation are available from August through November, 2017. Public access to the Steam Shop is normally available only once a year, during Cheyenne Depot Days in May.
The scheduled tours will include admission to the Cheyenne Depot Museum and trolley transportation to the Steam Shop where UP workers will showcase their work on the steam engines. The Fall tours will start at 12:30 pm on various Friday afternoons: Aug. 18, 25; Sept. 15, 29; Oct. 13, 27; and Nov. 10, 17. Tickets are $20 each and may be purchased in the Depot Visitor Center or by calling 307-778-3133. Advance reservations are required as similar tours in the Spring sold out quickly. Participants must wear closed-toe shoes and sign a liability release before going on the tour.
Only twenty-five Big Boy locomotives were ever built, and Cheyenne is now home to two of them. One is on display in Cheyenne’s Holliday Park. The other is in the Union Pacific Steam Shop where UP workers are restoring it to operating condition for excursions throughout the United States.
“The Union Pacific Steam Shop tour is truly a unique attraction,” said Darren Rudloff, CEO of Visit Cheyenne. “Visitors ask about seeing the Big Boy and Steam Shop virtually every day, and these tours will allow rail fans to experience something that can’t be experienced anywhere other than Cheyenne.”
The tours are a joint project of Union Pacific, Visit Cheyenne, and the Cheyenne Depot Museum. Visit Cheyenne graciously thanks Union Pacific for its generosity in opening up the Steam Shop for these tours. More information is at Cheyenne.org/steamshop.
