The Union Pacific pioneered transcontinental rail service. Eventually, running freight through half of America meant long consists hauled by some of the largest locomotives ever built. Reaching back to the end of the steam era, Union Pacific pictures giants ranging from mainline Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boys and Challenger 4-6-6-4s, to the 4-8-4 Northern, and a remarkable Consolidation 2-8-0 built in 1901. Steam on! Union Pacific 2021 monthly wall calendar features: Large blocks for notes | Beautiful reproduction | Quality heavy-weight paper | Deluxe 11- by 14-inch size
Locomotives and locations pictured in the 2021 edition include:
Union Pacific 820, a Class FEF-2 Northern, is leaving Council Bluffs, Iowa with 15-car Mail Train #5 on January 25, 1955. 820 was delivered in August 1939. There were 15 locomotives in its class, all with 80-inch-drivers, so 110 miles per hour was not a stretch for 820 and its 14 stablemates.
Union Pacific 817 (A Class FEF-1 Northern) is leading northbound Train #57, the Denver-to-Cheyenne local, through a raging snowstorm in February 1956. 817 is making a station stop at Greeley, Colorado.
Union Pacific Turbine 59 is emerging from the Hermosa Tunnel on March 2, 1954 with a westbound freight in tow. Turbine 59 is nearly new, delivered along with eight others in August 1953. There were ten of this class of turbines; they had a 7,200 gallons fuel supply built into the engine frame.
Union Pacific 158, four EMD GP-9s, the third one a cabless unit, is approaching Dale, Wyoming, coming off the #3 track with a westbound freight on April 25, 1955. It will stop to let Train #9, the westbound City of St. Louis led by an E7A coming down Sherman Hill on the left pass by.
Union Pacific 944-947B-936B is an all EMD Combination, an E9A and two E8Bs, running the eastbound 15-car Train #10, the City of St. Louis passing under the coal dock at La Salle, Colorado on May 22, 1955.
Union Pacific 823, a Class FEF-2 Northern (FEF-2 means 4-8-4-second order) is running as a point helper assisting Big Boy 4006, the assigned road locomotive, as they pass under the Colorado and Southern Railroad with a westbound freight, heading out of Cheyenne, Wyoming on a warm June 16, 1956.
Union Pacific 9394, two C40-8Ws and a GP40X, is leading a hot westbound intermodal train easily traveling at 70-miles-per-hour across a girder bridge at Howell, Wyoming, about seven miles west of Laramie on August 3, 1992.
Union Pacific 7039, an MT Class Mountain (4-8-2), is coming through Sand Creek Junction, Colorado, a few miles north of Denver with Train #57, the Denver-Cheyenne local, on August 24, 1952. Purchased from Alco-Brooks for passenger service they were delivered in 1923 and used primarily west of Cheyenne.
Union Pacific Big Boy 4015 leads an eastbound freight one mile east of Colores, Wyoming on September 17, 1958. Colores is a short siding on Main Track Number One 12 miles east of Laramie.
One-month-old Union Pacific 8,500 h.p. Turbine 2 is pulling out of the Cheyenne, Wyoming Yard with an eastbound freight on October 26, 1958. There were 30 of these third-generation gas turbine electric designs.
Union Pacific 3957 and 4021, a Challenger and a Big Boy respectively, are double-headed with a 59-car westbound train leaving Cheyenne, Wyoming on November 11, 1951.
Union Pacific 430, a vintage Consolidation (2-8-0) leads two-car mixed train #79 westbound out of Genoa, Nebraska, heading to Spaulding, 44 miles away. 430 was built in 1901 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works and was in continuous service until June 1958. © 2020 Tide-mark Press
