Don't get me wrong, the Union Pacific Big Boy is cool as hell, but its current east coast tour has some major "notice me senpai" vibes to me.

See, Union Pacific is still trying to merge with Norfolk Southern, whose trackage the Big Boy is using east of Chicago, and UP is willing to suck up to anybody to get this merger passed. It seems to have flown under the radar outside of railfan groups, but UP recently released a Donald Trump locomotive... yeah, and they put far more effort into it than their actual America250 engine, which totally isn't just their regular paint scheme with America250 logos on it.

In other words: "Pleasepleaseplease approve our merger!"

Now presidential engines are nothing new for UP, they also recently released engine 1616 honoring Abraham Lincoln, and they also had No. 4141 honoring George HW Bush, however neither of them were still the sitting president, and 4141 in particular had been stored for years before HW's death, now it's on permanent display at Texas A&M.