Will Schools Take Advantage of What a Massive Steam Locomotive Can Teach?

There’s been enormous interest in the Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 which will pass through North East, but I wonder how many readers picked up on my statement in the article that it’s “U.S. history, mechanical engineering and physics all rolled into one.” Actually, it’s even more than that and our schools should use it as a real life example of things students rarely see or recognize.

U.S. History

As mentioned, the 4014 was part of a fleet of these giants built beginning in 1941. What was happening at that time? What were these locomotives used for? Where in the United States did they roam? Having students do a little research to answer those questions, might, just might, stimulate them to think a little more about the past. The photo at the top of this article was taken in North East in 1957, that’s local history. There used to be a lot of these going by every day.

Photos and videos don’t do these machines justice, you have to see them in person, in motion, and then try to picture them as a regular part of the world around them at the time and then try to imagine the rest of the world from that era. Teachers and parents should encourage their children not to ignore what they’ll regret not seeing as they get older.

Mechanical Engineering

When you see as many trains go by as we do around here, it’s easy to dismiss one more, but this one is much more impressive. Huge steel wheels and drive rods under a boiler belching steam and smoke and moving over a million pounds of locomotive and tender at high speed, pulling a long line of cars.

These were designed by engineers and draftsmen using compasses, rulers, scales, protractors and french curves, no CAD or CAM software to help out. This was conceived in the human brains of the designers and engineers. No computers! Well, they did have computers of a different sort, they were called slide rules which work on the basis of logarithms. Do students today even learn about logarithms? Of course, engineers were still using slide rules when we put a man on the moon in 1969, so they really are a useful little device.

If you consider the many machines designed in that era, it can inspire a great appreciation for the scale and difficulty of the complex work necessary to build them.

Physics

If high school students make their way through some math, they can study physics, but a steam locomotive can teach quite a lot about physics if only someone takes the time to explain it.

Fire and water combine to create steam that builds pressure that pushes pistons that drive rods that turn wheels that move this million pound behemoth down the rails while pulling many millions of pounds more. The energy in the fuel is released as heat and that energy is transferred to the water and then is transferred to the steam and on down the line. Pretty amazing, but if a student sees that and understands it, they also have an understanding of how electric power plants work, how heat creates steam that drives turbines that turn generators. Physics! If you want to know exactly how much power is created in any of these scenarios, some math is involved, but the basics are right there in plain sight, in motion.

Learning opportunities are all around if you’re looking for them

Sometimes it seems our public schools get off track chasing the latest social trends, but if you’re truly interested in teaching students solid knowledge about the real world, examples like this are all around us. No budget increase necessary, no special materials, just show up. Home schoolers, especially, can take advantage of events like this, but parents, too, can make sure their children get the chance to see it.

The Big Boy locomotive will only be passing by, not stopping, so it will be a short viewing window into the past, though a trip to Buffalo could be arranged where it will be on display for public viewing, but the conversation can go on and the topics raised might be expanded upon for interested students.

Let’s not miss this as it rolls through and let’s keep our eyes open for more events that have so much more to teach than you might think at first glance.