{"id":238083,"date":"2026-07-08T04:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238083\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T04:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:49:14","slug":"hundreds-gather-in-berks-for-big-boys-return-trip-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/238083\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather in Berks for Big Boy&#8217;s return trip | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WYOMISSING, Pa &#8211; From Wernersville to Wyomissing, they waited.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As you can see, there&#8217;s an awful lot of people out there,&#8221; said John Bukowski of Wernersville.<\/p>\n<p>From near and far they came.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I put Dosie Dough bakery in my Mapquest thing and drove from Maine to here,&#8221; said Donald Verger of Maine.<\/p>\n<p>All to catch a glimpse of the Union Pacific Big Boy.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Big Boy Wernersville party 2\" 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\/07\/6a4d5a8eea296.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    WFMZ-TV | Tom Rader<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The largest operating steam engine in the United States,&#8221; Bukowski said. &#8220;That thing is huge.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s initial trip through Berks County is still on the minds many rail fans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Especially because I had to wait a bunch of days just to see the train because last time it turned into a mass casualty event,&#8221; said Vivian.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not secret, this whole Big Boy thing really did a number on us, but we&#8217;re doing a number on it, too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll notice that it was really working hard to get up the hill,&#8221; said Michael Marburger of North Carolina.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Big Boy Wernersville party\" 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\/07\/6a4d5a3b13dab.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    WFMZ-TV | Chad Blimline<\/p>\n<p>Despite heat, clouds, drizzle and hours waiting, many say it&#8217;s worth it for once or perhaps a twice in a lifetime experience.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this I said to my wife it&#8217;s twice in a lifetime opportunity \u2018cause I saw it on its way down,&#8221; Bukowski said.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a lot of talk about &#8220;lifetime&#8221; amongst the those lined up along the rails.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s big it&#8217;s loud and it&#8217;s a once in a lifetime experience,&#8221; Marburger said.<\/p>\n<p>Catching a glimpse of the Big Boy is marking a moment in time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The excitement of the Big Boy,&#8221; said Roseane Hess of Wernersville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WYOMISSING, Pa &#8211; From Wernersville to Wyomissing, they waited. &#8220;As you can see, there&#8217;s an awful lot of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,80322,102516,102515,100405,128,130,129,89246,7803,91713,14244,133],"class_list":["post-238083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-historic-train","tag-lifetime-experience","tag-public-gathering","tag-railfan","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-steam-engine","tag-tourism","tag-union-pacific-big-boy","tag-wernersville","tag-wyomissing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238083","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=238083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}