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The Union Pacific Railroad NYSE: UNP is the largest railroad in the United States. Its primary AAR reporting mark is UP. James R. Young is president and CEO of the Railroad.

The Union Pacific's route map covers most of the central and western United States, westward of Chicago and New Orleans. It has achieved this size thanks to purchasing a large number of other railroads; notable purchases include the Missouri Pacific, Chicago and North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and Southern Pacific (which itself was purchased by the Rio Grande before UP purchased it).

Union Pacific's chief competitor is the BNSF Railway, which covers much of the same territory.

History

The Union Pacific Railroad was incorporated on July 1, 1862 in the wake of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The first rails were laid in Omaha, Nebraska. They were part of the railroads which came together at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869 as the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Subsequently, the Union Pacific took over the Utah Central extending south from Ogden, Utah through Salt Lake City, and the Utah & Northern, extending from Ogden through Idaho into Montana, and it built or absorbed local lines, which gave it access to Denver and to Portland, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest. It acquired the Kansas Pacific (originally called the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, though in essence a separate railroad). It also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas.

Union Pacific was entangled in the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872. The railroad's early troubles led to bankruptcy during the 1870s, the result of which was reorganization of the Union Pacific Railroad as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24, 1880. The new company also declared bankruptcy, in 1893, but emerged on July 1, 1897, reverting again to the original name, Union Pacific Railroad. Such minor changes in corporate titles were a common result of reorganization after bankruptcy among American railroads. The recovered railroad was strong enough to take control of Southern Pacific Railroad in 1901 and then was ordered in 1913 by the U.S. Supreme Court to surrender control of the same. The Union Pacific Railroad also founded the Sun Valley resort in Idaho. In 1996, the UP finally acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad in a transaction that was envisioned nearly a century earlier.

From 1948 to the early 1970s the UP operated a series of gas turbine-electric locomotives. No other railroad in the world operated turbines on such a scale. At one point, UP claimed that the turbines hauled ten percent of the railroad's freight. They were retired due to rising fuel costs. Two of them can now be seen in museums.

UP has the headquarters of the railroad located in Omaha, Nebraska since its inception and moved in 2003 into the recently completed Union Pacific Center, also in Omaha.

Union Pacific Corporation

In 1986 Union Pacific purchased Overnite Transportation, a fairly major less-than-truckload shipping carrier. Union Pacific divested itself of Overnite Trucking through an IPO in late 2003 but still owned a sizable stake until UPS agreed to purchase Overnite in May 2005 for $1.25 billion.

That same year, the Union Pacific Corporation was created as a holding company for Union Pacific and its related properties, initially including the railroad and Overnite.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Union Pacific Corporation purchased several non-railroad companies, such as Skyway Freight Systems of Watsonville, California and United States Pollution Control, Inc., but by 2000, following the accession of Richard K. Davidson as CEO of the Corporation, it had divested itself of all non-railroad properties except for Overnite Trucking, and its holding company for logistical technology, Fenix Enterprises.

The Corporation was located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania until 1997, when Richard K. Davidson announced that the headquarters of the Corporation was moving to Dallas in September of that year. Upon the sale of Skyway and the impending divestiture of Overnite, however, the corporate headquarters were moved to Omaha to join the headquarters of the railroad only two years later, in 1999.

Current Trackage

Primarily concentrated west of the Mississippi River, the Union Pacific Railroad directly owns and operates track in 23 U.S. states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For administrative purposes, the Union Pacific’s track network is divided into 21 “service units”: Cheyenne, Chicago, Council Bluffs, Commuter Operations, Denver, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Livonia, Los Angeles, North Little Rock, North Platte, Portland, Roseville, San Antonio, Saint Louis, Tucson, Twin Cities, Utah, and Wichita. Each “service unit” is further divided into many different subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile mainlines to 10-mile branch-lines.

Not including second, third and fourth main line trackage, yard trackage, and siding trackage, the Union Pacific directly operates some 36,206 miles (58,364 kilometers) of track as of March, 24, 2000. When the additional tracks are counted, however, the amount of track that the Union Pacific has direct control over rises to 54,116 miles (87,091 kilometers).

Union Pacific has also been able to reach agreements with competing railroads, mostly BNSF, that allows the railroad to operate its own trains with its own crews on hundreds of miles of competing railroads’ main tracks.

Furthermore, due to the practice of locomotive leasing and sharing undertaken by the Class 1 Railways, Union Pacific locomotives occasionally show up on competitors' tracks throughout the United States, Canada and most recently, Mexico.

Yards and Facilities

Because of the enormity of the Union Pacific, hundreds of yards throughout the Union Pacific’s rail network are needed to effectively handle the daily transport of goods from one place to another.

Among the more prominent rail yards in Union Pacific’s system include:

• Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world, located in North Platte, Nebraska.
• The Hinkle Locomotive Service and Repair Facility, the largest locomotive facility along the Union Pacific, in Hinkle, Oregon.
• J.R. Davis Yard, the largest rail facility on the United States’ west coast, in Roseville, California.
• Jenks Shop, one of the largest locomotive overhaul and maintenance facilities in the world, located in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
• Global III Intermodal Facility, a critical interchange hub and loading/unloading terminal for intermodal shipments moving through the Chicago metropolitan area, in Rochelle, Illinois.

Union Pacific Police Department

Union Pacific, like most other major railroads, maintains a functioning police department staffed with Special Agents with jurisdiction over crimes against the railroad. Special Agents have federal and state arrest powers and can enforce laws even off railroad property. Special Agents typically investigate major incidents such as derailments, sabotage, grade crossing accidents and hazardous material accidents and minor issues such as trespassing on the railroad right of way, vandalism/graffiti, and theft of company property or customer product.

Special Agents often coordinate and liaise with local, state, and federal law enforcement on issues concerning the railroad and are dispatched nationally through UP Headquarters in Omaha. The Union Pacific Police Department and the term "Special Agent" were models for the FBI when it was created in 1907.

Union Pacific Police Department can be contacted for railroad emergencies on UP tracks or right of way at 1-888-UPRR-COP (877-7267).

Paint and colors

The Union Pacific's basic paint scheme for its diesel-electric locomotives is the oldest still in use by a major railroad. The bottom two-thirds of the locomotive body is painted Armour Yellow (so-named because it was the color used by the Armour meat company). A thin band of red divides this from the Harbor Mist Gray (a fairly light gray color) used for the body and roof above that point. A red line is also painted at the bottom of the locomotive body, but this color will gradually become yellow as new FRA regulations for reflectorized tape come into effect in 2005; the trucks, underframe, fuel tanks and everything else beneath that line are also painted Harbor Mist Gray. Lettering and numbering is also in red, with black outlines. Some locomotives (historically passenger locomotives, and some recent units from 2000 on) have white-outlined blue "wings" on the nose. More recently, some units have been repainted with a large, billowing Stars and Stripes with the corporate motto "Building America" on the side, where the 'UNION PACIFIC' lettering is normally positioned.

The first version of this scheme was used on the UP's streamlined trains in the 1930s, although a brown was used instead of grey. Passenger cars, cabooses and other non-freight equipment is also painted in a similar fashion.

The steam locomotive paint schemes are unique in their own way. Up until the mid-1940s, all steam locomotives on the Union Pacific were painted in a similar fashion: the smokebox and firebox were painted graphite and the rest was painted jet black. In the 1940s, many passenger locomotives were repainted to look somewhat similar to the flashy new E and F units being delivered. These locomotives were painted graphite all over, with one dark grey strip running alongside the running board and in the middle of the tender. This dark grey strip was outlined in yellow, and all lettering inside the strip was yellow also. Near the end of the steam locomotive's reign on the Union Pacific, these locomotives were repainted in the same color scheme as the earlier freight locomotives.

In the second half of 2005, Union Pacific unveiled a new set of EMD SD70ACe locomotives in "Heritage Colors," painted in schemes reminiscent of railroads acquired by UP since the 1980s. The engine numbers match the year that the predecessor railroad was absorbed into the Union Pacific. The three locomotives already repainted commemorate the Missouri Pacific (UP 1982), Western Pacific (UP 1983), and Missouri-Kansas-Texas (UP 1988) railroads. A further three engines will also be painted in the colors of other UP predecessors, which are Chicago and North Western (bought by UP in 1995) and Southern Pacific (1996), Denver and Rio Grande Western (which had already a part of Southern Pacific from 1988). These three locomotives are expected to be painted in Q1 of 2006.

Union Pacific recently unveiled another specially painted SD70ACe. UP 4141 has "George Bush 41" on the sides and its paint scheme resembles that of Air Force One.

Surviving Merger Partner Locomotives

As of July 31, 2005, Union Pacific operates as many as 152 Southern Pacific, 36 St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt), 6 Chicago and North Western, and 13 Denver and Rio Grande Western locomotives still in their former railroad's paint. In addition, many locomotives have been "patch" renumbered by UP, varying in the degree of the previous railroads' logos being eradicated, but always with a yellow patch applied over the locomotive's former number and a new Union Pacific number applied on the cab. This allows UP to number locomotives into its roster, yet it takes less time and money than it does to perform a complete repaint into UP colors. As of July 31, 2005, Union Pacific rostered a grand total of 492 "patches", consisting of 37 Chicago and North Western patches, 445 Southern Pacific patches, 47 St. Louis Southwestern patches, and 23 Denver and Rio Grande Western patches.

Historic locomotives

The UP, uniquely among modern railroads, maintains a small fleet of historic locomotives for special trains and hire. All historic Locomotives are stored in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the roundhouse. The roundhouse is just south of the historic depot.

• UP 844 is a 4-8-4 Northern type express passenger steam locomotive (class FEF-3). It was the last steam locomotive built for the Union Pacific and has been in continuous service since its 1944 delivery. Many people know the engine as the No. 8444, since an extra '4' was added to its number in 1962 to distinguish it from a diesel numbered in the 800 series. The steam engine regained its rightful number in June 1989, after the diesel was retired. A mechanical failure occurred on June 24, 1999, in which the boiler tubes from the 1996 overhaul, being made of the wrong material, collapsed inside the boiler and put the steam locomotive out of commission. The Union Pacific steam crew successfully repaired it and returned it to service on November 10, 2004. It is the only steam locomotive to never be officially retired from a North American Class I railroad.
• UP 3985 is a 4-6-6-4 Challenger class dual-service steam locomotive. It is the largest steam locomotive still in operation anywhere in the world. Withdrawn from service in 1962, it was stored in the Union Pacific roundhouse until 1975, when it was moved to the employee's parking lot outside the Cheyenne, Wyoming depot until 1981 when a team of employee volunteers restored it to service.
• UP 951, 949 and 963B are a trio of streamlined General Motors Electro-Motive Division E9 passenger locomotives built in 1955. They are used to haul the UP business cars and for charter specials. While externally they are 1955 vintage locomotives, the original twin engines have been replaced with single EMD 16-645E 3000 hp (2.2 MW) units and the electrical and control equipment similarly upgraded, making them modern locomotives under the skin. The set is made of two A units and one B unit.
• UP 6936 is an EMD DDA40X "Centennial" diesel-electric locomotive. These were the largest diesel locomotives ever built and were manufactured specifically for Union Pacific.
• UP 5511 is a 2-10-2 steam locomotive. This locomotive is very rarely ever heard of, due to the fact that it was never donated for public display. This locomotive is reportedly in excellent condition, and a restoration probably wouldn't take more than a couple of weeks. The only thing keeping it from being restored is that it would be limited to 40 mph or lower due to its large cylinders and small drivers. As of August 2004, this locomotive is being offered for sale by UP.

In addition there are a number of other locomotives kept in storage for possible future restoration. Rio Grande (DRGW) F9B 5763 is one of the units in storage, part of the Trio (A-B-B) of F9s that served on the Rio Grande in various Passenger Duty services (From the Denver Ski Train to the Zephyr Trains) until their retirement in 1996. Sister Units 5771 (F9A) and 5762 (F9B) were donated to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Chicago & Northwestern F7 #401, used in Chicago Commuter Service, also was retained by UP.

Among the former tenants was Southern Pacific SD7 1518 (The First Production SD7 (ex. EMD demo 990), transferred to the Illinois Railway Museum after sometime in storage in the UP shops.

Preserved locomotives

In addition to the historic fleet outlined above kept by the Union Pacific 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.

• UP 737 - A 4-4-0 in the collection of Steamtown National Historic Site.
• UP 4004, 4005, 4006, 4012, 4014, 4017, 4018, 4023 - Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotives. Eight out of twenty-five still survive. Number 4018, currently residing at the Age of Steam Railroad Museum in Dallas, TX, almost saw a return to operation in 1998 when a film director proposed restoring the locomotive for use in a movie. However, it has been almost a year since anything has been heard of this proposal, and it is considered to have been only a whim. Many consider the Big Boys to have been the largest locomotives ever built, however there are other classes of steam locomotive that are heavier, longer, or more powerful.
• UP 6911 - One of the huge UP's DD40x locomotives, stored in the Commission Federal de Electricidad CFE Museum in Mexico City.
• UP 9000, a Union Pacific 9000 class 4-12-2 giant non-articulated freight locomotive, at the Los Angeles County Fairplex, Pomona, California.

Passenger train service

Until May 1, 1971 (when Amtrak took over long-distance passenger operations in the United States), the Union Pacific at various times operated the following named passenger trains:

• Challenger
• City of Denver (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway)
• City of Las Vegas
• City of Los Angeles (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway)
• City of Portland
• City of Salina
• City of San Francisco (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Southern Pacific Railroad)
• City of St. Louis
• Columbine
• Los Angeles Limited
• Overland Flyer (Overland Limited)
• Portland Rose

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

Diversity

Union Pacific was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine. It was named "Most Military Friendly Employer in America" for 2005. For the third consecutive year, Union Pacific Railroad has been selected by LATINA Style magazine as one of the LATINA Style 50 best companies for Latina (female hispanic) employees in the United States.

Facts and Figures

According to Union Pacific’s 2003 Annual Report to Investors, at the end of 2003, the Union Pacific Railroad had more than 48,000 employees, 7,861 locomotives, and 87,725 freight cars.

Broken down by specific type of car, the Union Pacific owned:

• 29,374 Covered Hoppers
• 18,691 Boxcars
• 13,489 Open-top Hoppers
• 14,955 Gondolas
• 11,296 “Other” types of cars

In addition, the railroad also owns 6,950 different pieces of maintenance of way work equipment.

The average age from date of manufacture for Union Pacific’s locomotive fleet was 14.3 years at the end of 2003, while the average age from date of manufacture for the freight car fleet at the end of 2003 was 24.5 years.

Company officers

Presidents of the Union Pacific Railroad:

• Oliver Ames, Jr. (1866–1871)
• Sidney Dillon (1874–1884)
• Charles F. Adams (1884–1890)
• Sidney Dillon (1890–1892)
• Jay Gould (several months in 1892)
• E. H. Harriman (1904–1909)
• Carl R. Gray (1920–1937)
• William Jeffers (1937–?)
• John Kenefick (1971–1986)
• Richard K. Davidson (1991–1996)
• Ron Burns (several months in 1996)
• Jerry Davis (1996–1998)
• Ike Evans (1998–2004)
• James R. Young (2004–Present)

Chief Executive Officers, Presidents, and Chairmen of the Union Pacific Corporation (Parent Corporation of the Railroad)

• John Kenefick (several months in 1986)
• Drew Lewis (1986–1997)
• Richard K. Davidson (1997– January 2006)
• James R. Young (January 2006)

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items.

See also

• Central Pacific Railroad
• Missouri Pacific Railroad
• Pacific Fruit Express
• Southern Pacific Railroad
• Western Pacific Railroad
• Control Car Remote Control Locomotive (ex-locomotives used by the UP for remote control)
• First Transcontinental Railroad
• List of United States railroads
• List of Iowa railroads
• List of Kansas railroads
• List of Wisconsin railroads

References

• . ISBN 0-684-84609-8. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help)
• Trains News Wire (May 17, 2005), UPS to buy Overnite trucking company. Retrieved May 18, 2005 — details UPS/Overnite deal.
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Thousands of photographs from as early as 1860 taken by employees of the Union Pacific railroad
• Union Pacific Historical Society
• Union Pacific Railroad 19th Century Stereoview Exhibit (at the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum)
• Union Pacific Railroad, History of the UP logo: Decorative Victorian logos. Retrieved February 24 2005.
• Union Pacific Railroad, History of the UP logo: Early shields. Retrieved February 24 2005.
• Union Pacific Railroad, Significant individuals. Retrieved February 24 2005.

External links

• Union Pacific's official website
• Heritage paint photos: Union Pacific 1982 (Missouri Pacific), Union Pacific 1983 (Western Pacific), Union Pacific 1988 (Missouri-Kansas-Texas), Union Pacific 4141 (Air Force One)
• Railserve's Union Pacific News
• Union Pacific Railroad Yahoo! e-mail list
• A Brief History of Union Pacific's Passenger Trains
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - From Wyoming Tales and Trails

• Union Pacific Railroad
• Illinois railroads
• Missouri railroads
• Transportation in Saint Louis