According to info on the roster pages at Don Strack's UtahRails, it was the 4003, in addition to the 4010 and 4020, that were sent to Geneva Steel:

https://utahrails.net/up-steam-roster/u ... 962-16.php

I also believe that other photos of those Big Boys while at Geneva Steel can be found in the "Photos" section of the website, I just don't remember which collection they might have been in...

Sorry for the late response, but here is the specific sale order to Luria Brothers, dated May 6, 1963, with instructions to ship the locomotives direct to Columbia-Geneva Steel. Since the locomotives were on Geneva's private property, the specific dates for scrapping are unknown, regardless of what has previously been published.

Don Strack

Sad as it is to read the paper, this is a great find in terms of solidifying facts in the face of speculation. Looking at the scrap price on any of those locomotives, today preservationists would likely snap them all up!
Thanks to U.P. and communities along the line, we have a fair representation in varied locations. Amen!

IF I'm reading this right (and I think I can't be), they paid $26 per ton delivered (what is "RT"?) for a pile of scrap to be cut up, which seems to be quite a high price even then. That would amount to something around $12,000 back in 1963, which would be about $120,000 today according to the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics' online CPI calculator.

That's about what I would anticipate a railroad asking for a used locomotive in operating condition for reuse, not for scrap. (An acquaintance of mine paid $110K for a used Milwaukee Road/UP MP15 switcher that took some time to get back into operation!)

“RT” must mean something else. Otherwise that doesn’t make sense to me, either. Scrap industry works in gross tons, aka long tons or imperial tons which are 2,240 lbs. I don’t know what those engines weight but you can do the math. What’s more simple, if that $26 is per ton, that’s $261.75 in today’s money. Unprepared heavy melt is currently running around $100 to $112 per ton which is low but would never get anywhere close to $261. Subtract from that the cost of stripping all the non-ferrous stuff off first. Then you gotta cut it up into prepared sizes and separate it which back then was gonna take oodles of manhours and consumables. That’s why you don’t see smaller scrappers jumping at the chance to cut up a heavy loco today - ain’t no money in it.

"Twilight of Steam" has pictures of UP scrapping some Big Boys. I wonder how many UP scrapped compared to selling them to the steel mills.

Outside of the three mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure the UP cut them all up themselves.

In the early 60s steam locomotive were selling for around $20 per short ton in the Northwest. In 1964 a friend got a 70 tonner for $1500.

Long Island G5s 4-6-0's sold for $5000 each.

In Twilight of Steam published in 1963 Ron Ziel stated that a 250 ton 2-10-4 went for $5000 and took two men 14 hours to cut up.

Interesting. That’s $20/ton in 1963. Wow, that’s high. Though I do think that 28 manhours is wishful thinking to cut it all up into small enough pieces for a charge unless they had big hydraulic shears like they do nowadays. Even if, that’s still awful fast to strip, cut and sort judging by what I’ve seen.

"Twilight of Steam" was a wonderfully engaging book which came out at precisely the right time. It's also interesting to note, in the scrapping of CB&Q 6316, the torch guys are absolutely showered in asbestos dust, while hills of it gather around them.
Ron said it took a day and a half to destroy the 2-10-4. At the time, NWS&W had long strings of CB&Q Mikados, Northerns, and Texas types. I have a print someplace of NKP Berkshires in the lines as well as endless GTW engines of multiple varieties.
Nelson Blount tried to secure a Burlington 2-10-4 for Steamtown (remember Steamtown?), but the final one was being used to supply steam to the plant when an accident occurred and it was deemed too dangerous to use. Bingo, that was that.
I doubt NWS&W would have sold anything to preservationists in any case. Many of the locomotives were systematically butchered on arrival so there would be no redemption possible.

Ron was offered the chance to help cut up Big Boy 4015 at Green River but declined.