The Union Pacific Railroad
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The locomotive fleet consists of 43 different models and had an average age of Union Pacific continues to use a small number of "heritage" steam locomotives and early streamlined diesel locomotives. This equipment is used on special charters as well as the Cheyenne Frontier Days Express special train. Union Pacific maintains an extensive fleet of low-emissions locomotives.
The majority of these locomotives have been purchased via grants from the US federal government, via the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program. Alone among modern railroads, UP maintains a small fleet of historic locomotives for special trains and hire in its Cheyenne, Wyoming roundhouse. In addition there are a number of other locomotives kept in storage for possible future restoration.
UP: U.S. Guide to the Union Pacific
Chicago and North Western F7 No. UP , a twin to , is stored in the Cheyenne roundhouse as a parts source, though as most of its usable parts have already been applied to , it is more likely to see use as a source of pattern parts for reproduction replacements. Reputedly, 's boiler is in better condition than that of , due to having not been in steam since retirement, compared to 's relatively heavy use since In addition to the historic fleet outlined above kept by UP itself, a large number of UP locomotives survive elsewhere. Many locomotives were donated to towns along the Union Pacific tracks, for instance, as well as locomotives donated to museums.
For many years, the train has been used in various events, including parades, employee Family Days and other civic events. Today, it makes about 50 appearances a year throughout Union Pacific's state system and generally is booked up to three years in advance of special civic celebrations. The mini train is composed of the following: According to UP's Annual Report to Investors, at the end of it had more than 50, employees, 8, locomotives, and 94, freight cars. In addition, it owns 6, different pieces of maintenance of way work equipment.
At the end of the average age of UP's locomotive fleet was UP ranked st on the Fortune list of the largest United States corporations by revenue in and had 41, employees.
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As of [update] , Union Pacific does not provide regularly-scheduled intercity passenger services. In order to ensure uniformity across the Chicago area commuter rail system, trains are branded as Metra services and use Metra equipment. However, Union Pacific crews continue to operate the trains under a purchase-of-service agreement.
Between and , Union Pacific operated passenger service throughout its historic "Overland Route.
Named passenger trains once operated by Union Pacific include the following:. Around 16 cars, most of them carrying salt, derailed spilling its contents in mountainous, snow-like piles. The derailment caused an interruption in traffic for about two hours until city officials could clean up the mess. On June 24, , three crew members were killed when two Union Pacific trains slammed into each other just east of Goodwell , about miles northwest of Oklahoma City. The crash triggered a diesel-fueled fireball that appeared to weld the locomotives together.
Union Pacific Railroad
On November 15, , four United States military veterans in Midland, Texas died after their parade float was struck by a train. The accident caused a Missouri Route M overpass to partially collapse, and a post-accident fire was also reported. Three months later, Route M overpass reopened with a new design.
In the course of the derailment, a ton tank car carrying liquified chlorine was punctured.
As the chlorine vaporized, a toxic "yellow cloud" formed, killing three and causing 43 hospitalizations. Investigations of the Macdona incident revealed several serious safety lapses on the part of the Union Pacific and its employees, including employees not following the company's own safety rules. The Macdona incident was not the first derailment in the San Antonio area. Between May and November , Union Pacific trains derailed five times, killing at least 4 people.
In the aftermath of Macdona, the Federal Railroad Administration signed a compliance agreement with the railroad in which the railroad promised to rectify the "notable deficiencies" that regulators found.
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Trains have continued to derail in the area [57] [58] [59] including an incident in June where tank cars containing chlorine and petroleum naptha xylene derailed, but did not spill. In Eugene, Oregon, the UP and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are jointly studying ground contamination at the railroad's yard originating with the Southern Pacific from over one hundred years ago, consisting mostly of petroleum hydrocarbons , industrial solvents, and metals. This has affected a nearby groundwater source. The company's Fuel Master program uses the expertise of locomotive engineers to save fuel.
Engineers who save the most fuel are rewarded on a monthly basis. The program has saved the company millions of dollars, a significant amount of which has been returned to the engineers.
The Pacific Railway
In , the program founder, Wayne Kennedy, received the John H. EMP's fleet of more than 35, domestic foot containers and chassis traverse major cities throughout North America. The museum includes artifacts, photographs, and documents that trace the development of the first Union Pacific railroad and the American West. The museum's collection features weapons from the late 19th and 20th centuries, outlaw paraphernalia, a sampling of the immigrants' possessions, and a photograph collection comprising more than , images.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Union Pacific disambiguation. System map trackage rights in purple. History of the Union Pacific Railroad. Revenue passenger traffic, in millions of passenger-miles [Note 1] Year Traffic [Note 2] 1, [Note 2] [Note 2] 5, 1, Source: This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. September Learn how and when to remove this template message.
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Largest domestic 53 foot container companies fleet size. Trains portal Companies portal Nebraska portal. Joseph and Grand Island Railway. Retrieved 27 March Several men decided to back him, including hardware wholesaler Collis P. Huntington and his partner, Mark Hopkins ; dry goods merchant, Charles Crocker ; and wholesale grocer, soon to be governor, Leland Stanford.
These backers would later come to be known as the "Big Four. Huntington and his partners paid Judah to survey the route. Judah used maps from his survey to bolster his presentation to Congress in October Many Congressmen were leery of beginning such an expensive venture, especially with the Civil War underway, but President Abraham Lincoln , who was a long time supporter of railroads, agreed with Judah.
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Almost immediately, conflicts arose between Judah and his business partners over the construction of the Central Pacific line. In October , Judah sailed for New York to attempt to find investors who would buy out his Sacramento partners. Though he had made the voyage to Panama and across the Isthmus by train many times, he contracted yellow fever during this trip and died on November 2, one week after reaching New York City.
Judah did not live to see the Central Pacific begin work; he departed Sacramento for New York a few weeks before the first rail was spiked on October 26, At the eastern end of the project, Grenville Dodge and his assistant, Peter Dey , surveyed the potential route the Union Pacific would follow. President Lincoln favored this route and made the decision that the eastern terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad would be Council Bluffs, Iowa, across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska. Because the government paid by the mile of track built, Durant also insisted the original route be unnecessarily lengthened, further lining his pockets.
Soon after the completion of the railroad, Durant's corrupt business schemes became a public scandal with Congress investigating not only Durant, but also fellow Senators and Representatives who had benefited from his shady dealings. The Central Pacific's Big Four formed their corporation with a similar arrangement, awarding the construction and supplies contract to one of their own, Charles Crocker, who, for the sake of appearances, resigned from the railroad's board.
However, the Big Four owned an interest in Crocker's company and each of them profited from the contract.
The race between the two companies commenced when the Union Pacific finally began to lay tracks at Omaha, Nebraska, in July A bridge over the Missouri River would be built later to join Omaha to Council Bluffs, the official eastern terminus. With tens of thousands of Civil War veterans out of work, hiring for the Union Pacific was easy. The men, mostly Irishmen, worked hard and well, despite going on strike occasionally when Durant withheld their pay over petty labor disputes.
Finding workers was a more difficult task for the Central Pacific. Laborers, mainly Irish immigrants, were hired in New York and Boston and shipped out west at great expense. Corporate headquarters are in Omaha, where Union Pacific laid its first rails in We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles.
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