{"id":232223,"date":"2026-06-30T22:09:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/232223\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T22:09:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T22:09:48","slug":"big-boy-train-and-heat-wave-headed-to-berks-county-officials-prep-for-crowds-southern-berks-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/232223\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Boy train and heat wave headed to Berks County; Officials prep for crowds | Southern Berks County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ROBESON TWP., Pa &#8211; The Union Pacific &#8220;Big Boy&#8221; train, and a heat wave, are on the way.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On Thursday, we have the Big Boy train coming through as part of the 250 between 3:35 and 3:55,&#8221; said Chief Joe Brown of Robeson Township.<\/p>\n<p>The train will make stops in the Hamburg, Leesport and Muhlenberg Township areas as it heads through Berks toward Pottstown on a day that could feature dangerously high temps, big crowds, and lots of traffic.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We encourage them to come out and take pictures&#8230; we want everybody to get a picture of this thing and the rail fans, the majority have been amazing&#8230; they listen, they don&#8217;t want to get in trouble&#8230; they want to just get a picture and have a good time,&#8221; said Matt Johnson with Reading Northern Railroad.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Berks train tracks\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6a442fa61afbc.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    WFMZ-TV | Tom Rader<\/p>\n<p>With the Big Boy on the way, police in Robeson Township are taking a proactive approach in an effort to keep people safe. They&#8217;re setting up a tent and will have EMS on standby.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are working with the first responders, EMS and fire, to make sure that we have adequate services in place should any type of medical emergency or any emergency occur. In addition, we&#8217;ll have a water station set up at the intersection of 724 and Gibraltar Road to make sure everyone is hydrated,&#8221; said Brown.<\/p>\n<p>Police say that organizers have been working closely with them with details about stops and drive throughs at various locations across Berks County and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s kind of like a joint effort but we have a six-man full-time police department, so we&#8217;ll be chasing this thing to every crossing, and we do need the help from the locals which they&#8217;ve been excited for it to come to their area,&#8221; said Johnson.<\/p>\n<p>People are asked to stay at least 25 feet away from the tracks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROBESON TWP., Pa &#8211; The Union Pacific &#8220;Big Boy&#8221; train, and a heat wave, are on the way.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,72376,100407,4032,3667,100405,128,130,129,12748,100406,43578],"class_list":["post-232223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-big-boy","tag-crowd-control","tag-emergency-services","tag-heat-wave","tag-railfan","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-robeson-township","tag-train-safety","tag-union-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}