RRHMA restoring Union Pacific café diner lounge

Yellow passenger car in shop building

SILVIS, Ill. — Railroading Heritage of Midwest America has begun restoration work on former Union Pacific café-diner-lounge No. 5016. RRHMA is advertising that tours of the car to see work in progress will be offered with the purchase of tickets to the Trains and Tractors event at Silvis Oct. 18 and 19. Plans are to […]

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Class of their own

20191015

In early 1954, Union Pacific 4-12-2 No. 9028 brings a train into North Platte, Neb., from the east. Only UP had 4-12-2s, 88 built during 1926–30, which led to the wheel arrangement being called the Union Pacific type. Art Stensvad photo […]

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Stencils on the rail

Color photo of railroad track with yellow stencil on web of rail.

Q: In all my 74 years of  looking at train tracks this is the first time I noticed a “No trespassing” stencil on the web of the rail of the Union Pacific tracks that run by my home in Fort Dodge, Iowa. I’m curious if this is standard procedure for the UP or if other […]

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Automated Railway

20191028

In a view taken halfway up a light tower we see Union Pacific’s modern hump yard at North Platte, Neb., around 1950. At the bottom left is the hump tower, and the two cars just above it are rolling free toward the master retarder. Union Pacific photo […]

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California’s Tehachapi Loop

Steam locomotive with passenger train on broad curve

When it comes to showmanship in mainline mountain railroading, California’s Tehachapi Pass can be described as a grand theater. Located between Bakersfield and Mojave, historic Tehachapi Loop is at center stage, an impressive helix stretching three-quarters of a mile while looping over itself to gain 77 feet in elevation. The loop itself sits at about […]

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