Union Pacific Railroad Union Pacific has the right name-it’s the last major U.S. rail system whose name has never changed, dating from its charter in 1862 to build the nation’s first transcontinental westward from Omaha, Nebraska. Construction began in 1865, and was completed on May 10, 1869. Also notable for their longevity are Union Pacific’s […]
Wearing Union Pacific’s revived wing shield emblem, a trio of SD70M locomotives leads a trailer train eastbound through Creston, Ill. Howard Ande The largest U.S. railroad, Union Pacific Railroad operates a 32,000-mile network (27,000 route miles owned, 5,000 route miles on trackage rights) serving 23 states. The railroad links every major city in the west […]
THE M-10000 UNION PACIFIC streamliner looks like something out of Astounding Science Fiction rather than the trade journal Railway Age. It was the first of the modern streamlined passenger trains, and its unique design, old enough today to qualify for full Social Security benefits, still stands out. Author Robert Reed, in The Streamline Era (Golden […]
K-LINE’S O gauge Big Boy locomotive is made for John Q. Trainguy or Susy Q. Tinplater: the operator with a tight-radius layout and an equally tight budget, but who longs to operate trains at the Big Boy level. MTH and Lionel in their RailKing and LionMaster lines have used selective compression to build articulated locomotives […]
IN MY MIND, the pinnacle of diesel locomotion is the General Motors SD40-2. Back when I would trudge through snowbanks in Wyoming and North Dakota to snap pictures of trains, it was the SD40-2 that got my heart pounding, rather than endless streams of GP-whatevers. The SD40-2 is big and burly. The long fore and […]
IN 1996, THE FIRST MTH RailKing articulated locomotive – the no. 30-1107 Union Pacific Challenger 4-6-6-4 – rolled onto tinplate track and created quite a stir. Regardless of its reduced dimensions, no manufacturer had ever offered an articulated, die-cast metal steamer for the small layout, tight-radius crowd. Its success heralded 1997’s Allegheny 2-6-6-6, 1998’s Big […]
WOW! LIGHTNING HAS struck twice in one year. In the July issue we reviewed an F3 set by Williams that was the spitting image of a postwar Lionel F3. Now there’s a new addition to MTH’s RailKing line that visually also has quite a bit in common with a postwar Lionel F3. Why should MTH […]
Rivarossi HO Union Pacific 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive Click on chart for a larger image Improved HO 4-8-4 has looks and power This HO 4-8-4 from Rivarossi is a welcome upgrade to an accurate and attractive model originally introduced in 1980. The new engine features RP-25 wheels, improved electrical pickup, flywheel drive, increased weight for […]
Trix HO Union Pacific automobile boxcar and Pacific Fruit Express reefer Trix adds more American HO freight cars A double-door Union Pacific 40-foot automobile boxcar and a steel Pacific Fruit Express refrigerator car are the latest offerings in the growing Trix/ Märklin line of American-prototype freight cars, and they’re both well built and well detailed […]
Märklin HO Union Pacific freight car If you’re looking for freight cars and a caboose to run behind a Trix Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, Märklin has released a ten-pack of UP 40-foot boxcars, a four-pack of open hoppers, and a steel caboose in its line of ready-to-run North American-prototype cars. CA-3 cabooseThe 100 class […]
ORANGE, Calif. — Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner is instituting its annual requirement for advance reservations during the Thanksgiving holiday period — and has announced operating plans for the four-day period in late December when trains will be unable to stop at Los Angeles Union Station because of track and signal work. Reservations will be required Wednesday, […]
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Three unions have ratified new contracts with Canadian Pacific subsidiaries in the U.S. and eastern Canada, the railroad has announced. The agreements cover a total of about 430 employees on the Central Maine & Quebec in Canada (represented by United Steel Workers Local 1976), the CM&Q in the U.S. (represented by the SMART […]
