Mayor: Sterling to receive Union Pacific ‘Train Town USA’ designation

STERLING – Sterling will be recognized later this year as one of more than 100 communities designated a “Train Town USA” by Union Pacific.

The designation honors communities founded by immigrants who migrated along the expanding rail lines from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean more than 150 years ago. Sterling Mayor Diana Merdian said she has been working with Union Pacific for months to receive the designation for the city.

Merdian said the designation will help the Riverfront Reimagined project by bringing more “attention, ideas for events and reasons to come off the interstate” to the city.

“I have been pushing for this designation because it puts us on the map,” Merdian said. “It’s the little steps of progress that help while we continue to do the heavy lifting of the bigger project.”

To date, 131 communities have been designated as a “Train Town USA” by Union Pacific, including Crystal Lake. Sterling joins this group as the 18th Illinois community to receive the designation.

“We began the ‘Train Town USA’ registry in 2012 as part of the railroad’s yearlong 150th anniversary celebration,” Union Pacific spokesperson Robynn Tysver said. “Rochelle, Illinois, was the first member. We have nearly 7,300 communities we serve along our 32,000 miles of track in 23 states, and the registry is a way to honor our shared history.”

Merdian also is trying to get Sterling added as a whistlestop on the iconic Big Boy No. 4014 steam engine’s “Heartland of America Tour” this fall but still is waiting for confirmation from Union Pacific, which already has added Rochelle as a whistlestop on the tour.

According to Union Pacific, Big Boy is the world’s largest operating steam locomotive. Of the 25 steam engines built during World War II, only eight survived. Big Boy is the only one still in operation. It last passed through Sterling on July 30, 2019.

“Its first tour after it was refurbished was in 2019, when it traveled to Ogden, Utah, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad,” Tysver said. “The upcoming Heartland of America tour will be its eighth tour since it was refurbished.”

Big Boy’s eight-week tour starts Thursday, Aug. 29, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and will continue across nine additional states including Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas before concluding in October. Fans can track Big Boy’s location as it progresses along its route via the Steam Locomotive Tracking map on Union Pacific’s website.

Tysver said Union Pacific has not yet completed its list of whistlestops but will provide a more detailed schedule with all planned stops later this month.