St. Louis, MO

Why this stop matters

St. Louis Union Station was, at its peak, the largest single passenger rail terminal in the world by track count. Eighteen railroads converged on its train shed during the steam era. The Grand Hall and headhouse remain; the platforms today host a hotel, but the architecture preserves the scale at which steam-era passenger service operated.

Putting 4014 in front of that headhouse sets the largest steam locomotive ever built against the terminal that once handled the most passenger trains — two superlatives of the steam age in a single frame.