Beth Anderson, Children's Writer

When author Marsha Diane Arnold discovered a tale of a steam engine that seemed to have a ready-made story arc, she still had to find a way to embed “heart” to emotionally connect readers to the story. How do you do that with a huge steel machine? Check out Marsha Diane Arnold’s post and…

Be sure to get in on the GIVEAWAY for a signed copy of BIG BOY 4014 by leaving a comment below!

Congratulations to Christine Van Zandt, winner of SALAMANDER SONG from Ginny Neil! 

Finding the Heart of a Locomotive in BIG BOY 4014 by Marsha Diane Arnold

I truly don’t recall the first time I heard the story of Big Boy 4014. But when I did, I was enamored. I must have been deeply enamored to consider writing Big Boy’s story – I generally write fiction picture books, not nonfiction. I knew that writing a nonfiction story about the largest working steam locomotive in the world, especially one traveling the rails today and whose engineer was a rail rock star, would be a challenge. After all, I was a writer, not an engineer or mechanic.

Still, when I first heard Big Boy’s story, I thought,“It’s a perfect story arc!”  She called to me with her perfect story arc. (You may notice I’m using “she” and “her” to refer to Big Boy, even though she’s always been called Big Boy. For hundreds of years, engineers and sailors alike have referred to ships and locomotives as “she” – a tip of the hat to the grace, beauty, and power found in both.)

Big Boy 4014 And The Steam Team is the story of a locomotive built for a great purpose, then nearly scrapped, then “stranded” in an outdoor museum for half a century, far from any working track. When someone suggested bringing Big Boy 4014 back to the rails, the idea was thought to be ridiculous.

“Impossible! What a crazy idea!”

 But a Steam Team – with a determined leader and shared vision – did just that. They restored her, converting her from coal to oil. They brought her back to the rails, where she has thrilled hundreds of thousands of people as they watch her roar past or steam into a station.

Yes, it was a perfect story arc. I would show what Big Boy longed for, how she felt “stranded” in that outdoor museum after her life on the rails. I would show the obstacles to her restoration – almost no one believed she could return. To restore such a train was a Herculean task The ending would show her traveling the rails again with rail fans cheering her on.

Wait! Big Boy is a collection of bolts, pistons, and valves. She can’t feel anything!

Maybe. But I wanted my story to have heart. I wanted Big Boy 4014 to have heart.

I’ve always had a strong feeling for animals and even…objects. I believe that much in life is sentient. I wanted my readers to imagine what a train would feel if it were sentient. How would it experience emotion? How would it dream, hope, and feel gratitude? I used personification, sparingly and intentionally. In four places in the book, I ask readers to imagine with me – if Big Boy could dream, could hope, could talk, could feel. The beginning of the story includes the line, “If steam locomotives could dream, Big Boy would be chugging up the Wasatch Mountains at top speed, feeling the warmth of the coal in her firebox, as powerful as 7,000 horses.”

Was I doing more than personifying? Was I implying that Big Boy might be self-aware? Might be capable of thoughts and feelings? That’s up to the reader’s imagination. What I hoped was to create an emotional connection between the reader and this magnificent locomotive. Big Boy. I wanted readers to feel that Big Boy was alive, that she has a spirit, a history, a destiny. That she has a story to tell, a story of resilience and renewal and heart. That’s a story we all can relate to.

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BIO 

Marsha Diane Arnold has always loved trains. She grew up in the country, about a mile from the railroad tracks, where she could hear that lonely train whistle echo through the night. As a small child, she’d point at trains and exclaim, “Grandma! Choo-Choo” to her great-grandmother. A nickname was born, and from then on, Great-grandma was fondly called “Grandma Choo-Choo.” Marsha is a multi-award-winning author of twenty-four books, including Lost. Found.,Lights Out., and Badger’s Perfect Garden. With a heart for nature, history, and stories of quiet power, Marsha brings both imagination and soul to every book she writes. Her newest picture book, Big Boy 4014 and the Steam Team, steams into bookstores in May 2025.