Union Pacific Cabooses
By Don Strack
Steel Maintenance-of-Way Cabooses
Union Pacific's non-revenue, maintenance-of-way operations have always received rolling stock that was either obsolete, or not cost effective to keep in regular revenue service. The caboose fleet was no different. Between 1904 and 1906, the railroad converted 75 Box Car cabooses from box cars built in the 1880s. In 1917, additional box car cabooses were converted, again from retired box cars built in the 1890s. These Box Car cabooses, both with and without cupolas, remained in active service from the time of their conversion through to the 1950s. They usually worked in maintenance-of-way service, but at times were also used in regular mainline, branch, and local service, if there were insufficient numbers of regular cabooses available.
During the 1940s and early 1950s, the increase in traffic brought with it the need for more cabooses. While assigned to the same type of service as the Box Car cabooses, these "temporary cabooses" were numbered in the regular non-revenue series numbers, and were usually assigned to maintenance-of-way service. As with the Box Car cabooses, several temporary cabooses were also used in regular mainline, branch and local service.
By the mid 1950s, the ranks of box car cabooses and temporary cabooses were slowly diminishing as the cars were damaged in wrecks, and as the cars themselves wore out and became uneconomical to keep repaired. The increasing numbers of steel cabooses allowed the older wooden N.C.S., CA and CA-1 cabooses to be used in non-revenue service, and the wooden cars were regularly assigned these duties throughout the 1960s. With the last wooden cabooses being retired, UP began using the older steel cabooses in non-revenue service.
In 1970 and 1971, three CA-3 steel cabooses were retired and permanently assigned to non-revenue service, and renumbered into the 900000 maintenance-of-way number series, as 903001, 903002, and 903003. In February to April 1975, another 13 CA-3 and CA-4 steel cabooses were retired and assigned to non-revenue service, specifically, derrick train service. These 13 cars were numbered as 903217 to 903229.
Five more steel cabooses joined the non-revenue fleet in 1978 and 1979. All were originally in service as CA-4s and CA-5s. The numbers assigned were not consecutive, but rather, as with all equipment in the non-revenue number series, assigned as needed at the time of entering maintenance-of-way service, among the retired box cars, flat cars, and other equipment used to keep the right of way in top notch shape.
The need for non-revenue cabooses continued after 1984 when cabooses were no longer needed on mainline trains. In 1990, at least another six (possibly nine) cabooses were assigned to non-revenue service. Others may have also been assigned, but records are incomplete.
These non-revenue cabooses received the same utilitarian aluminum paint as all other non-revenue equipment. Beginning in 1971, all maintenance of way equipment, including cabooses, began to be painted a light green color, sometimes known as Kenefick green, after John Kenefick, president of UP from 1971 to 1986.
These cabooses saw service system-wide, and were assigned to welded rail trains, derrick trains, tie-renewal trains, ballast sled trains, and the annual steel gang trains that moved all over the railroad replacing rail and ties as needed. Two steel cupola cabooses have been painted solid yellow and assigned to the P-811 concrete tie train.
The nine steel cabooses in the 906250 series road numbers were assigned in 1990 as office (or supervisor's) cars for maintenance of way service. Several were specifically assigned to welded rail train service and operated with the welded rail trains from the rail welding plants at Laramie, Wyo., Dennison, Texas, and North Little Rock, Ark. Additional office cars were assigned in late 1994 from the ranks of former Missouri Pacific compact body cabooses, and renumbered in the MP 7500-7514 number series. The UP cars were converted by railroad personnel at each of the welded rail plants, and the MP 7500 series cars were completed by a contractor in Parsons, Kansas. Apparently, neither the UP fleet of nine cars, nor the MP fleet of 15 cars were fully converted to their new service, and many have either been retired, or remain stored and only partially finished at several maintenance of way shop locations. Several of the converted cars have simply been assigned to work train service and to local service without receiving any special conversion.
Following is a table of the known cabooses assigned to non-revenue service:
| Car Numbers | Quantity | Original Class | Years Converted |
| 903001-903003 | 3 | CA-3, CA-4 | 1970, 1971 |
| 903005 | 1 | CA-5 | 1984 |
| 903011 | 1 | CA-10 | 1993 |
| 903014 | 1 | CA-9 | 1994 |
| 903018 | 1 | CA-4 | 1978 |
| 903038-903041 | 4 | CA-4, CA-5 | 1979 |
| 903217-903229 | 13 | CA-3, CA-4 | 1975 |
| 906250-906258 | 9 | CA-5, CA-7, CA-8, CA-9 | 1990 |
Note: All maintenance-of-way steel cabooses have been retired. The computer system used for car fleet management drops entries after two years, therefore many retired cabooses are no longer shown in the railroad's computer system, although many remain on railroad property.
Maintenance-of-Way Steel Cabooses
| Car Number |
Date Built |
Previous Number |
Date Renumbered |
Date Retired |
Notes |
| 903001 | May 1942 | 25024 | Dec 1971 | ||
| 903002 | May 1942 | 25025 | Aug 1971 | ||
| 903003 | Sep 1944 | 25173 | Jun 1970 | Last assigned to system welded rail train; usually stored at Laramie, Wyo.; retired and sold; moved to Boulder, Colo. | |
| 903005 | Aug 1952 | 25283 | Jul 1984 | Briefly painted and lettered as WPMW 25283 during early July 1984; donated to Feather River Rail Society, Portola, Calif. in 1985. | |
| 903011 | -- | -- | -- | Class CA-10; converted to Maintenance of Way in 1993. | |
| 903014 | Jun 1967 | 25673 | (Sep 1994)? | Class CA-9; converted to Maintenance of Way in 1994. Former number confirmed by inspection of car while in storage at Cheyenne, April 2003. Stored at Laramie, Wyo.; moved to Cheyenne; sold in 2004 to the Kankakee Railroad Museum in Kankakee, Ill., located at the old Illinois Central Depot. (2004 update from Tom Taylor, by way of Jim Harrawood and Roger Kirkpatrick, September 19, 2004) | |
| 903015 | -- | -- | -- | Class unknown, seen in Cheyenne in late 1990s; retained its original yellow body color, but received a green paint patches under its new 903015 road number; sold to Rio Grande Pacific and shipped to New Orleans & Lower Coast Railroad. In April 2004, 903015 was moved by UP from its location at Goldsboro, La., to Westwego, La., where it was picked up by UP for movement to Idaho Northern Railroad at Payette, Idaho. The car was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on April 11, 2004. (2004 information from Joel Boucher, via Thorton Waite) | |
| 903018 | Oct 1944 | 25107 | Dec 1978 | Last assigned to system welded rail train, circa 1985; usually stored at Laramie, Wyo. | |
| 903038 | Oct 1944 | 25180 | Sep 1979 | Dec 1981 | |
| 903039 | Jul 1952 | 25210 | Jan 1979 | ||
| 903040 | Jul 1952 | 25215 | Apr 1979 | ||
| 903041 | Aug 1952 | 25225 | Mar 1979 | ||
| 903217 | May 1942 | 25022 | Feb 1975 | Sold to Alter Trading Co., Council Bluffs, Iowa, 4 April 1990, scrapped. | |
| 903218 | Jul 1942 | 25098 | Apr 1975 | ||
| 903219 | Jun 1942 | 25056 | Feb 1975 | Last assigned to Portola wreck train, circa November 1983; displayed as UP 25056 in city park at Green River, Wyo. | |
| 903220 | Jun 1942 | 25059 | Feb 1975 | Sep 1985 | Donated to Old West Frontier Days Museum, Cheyenne, Wyo., February 1986; displayed as UP 22605. Sold to a private individual and moved, July 1991. |
| 903221 | Sep 1944 | 25126 | Mar 1975 | Apr 1984 | Donated to Centennial Valley Historical Association, Centennial, Wyo., May 1985, delivered in July 1985. |
| 903222 | May 1942 | 25023 | Mar 1975 | Oct 1976 | Wrecked on 24 July 1976 at Rock Springs, Wyo. |
| 903223 | Jun 1942 | 25050 | Mar 1975 | Apr 1984 | At UP's yard in Yermo, Calif., January 1985. (Information from Randy Keller, via Roger Kirkpatrick) |
| 903224 | Oct 1944 | 25108 | Mar 1975 | Last assigned to Salt Lake City derrick train. Painted in August 1983 with aluminum body color and black-edged red lettering. | |
| 903225 | Oct 1944 | 25150 | Apr 1975 | Last assigned to Las Vegas derrick train. Donated after September 1984 to Barstow Unified School District, Yermo, Calif. Sold to a private individual, and possibly used as a concession stand at a ball park in the Barstow area. | |
| 903226 | Jun 1942 | 25053 | Apr 1975 | Aug 1983 | |
| 903227 | Sep 1944 | 25100 | Apr 1975 | Assigned to Pocatello derrick train, October 1984; used on Pioneer Local north from Salt Lake City in 1988-1991. | |
| 903228 | Nov 1944 | 25157 | Apr 1975 | Jul 1985 | |
| 903229 | Oct 1949 | 25186 | Apr 1975 | ||
| 906250 | Aug 1952 | 25281 | Apr 1990 | Last location shown in railroad records is Roseville, Calif.; seen in transit in Utah in 2001. (A different caboose is displayed as UP 25281 at Walters, Okla.) | |
| 906251 | May 1967 | 25634 | Apr 1990 | Last location shown in railroad records is at Rawlins, Wyo. | |
| 906252 | |||||
| 906253 | Mar 1959 | 25463 | Oct 1990 | Retained its original yellow body color, but received a green paint patches under its new 906000-series road number; sold to a private individual in Fort Collins, Colo. | |
| 906254 | Class unknown; still in maintenance of way service in 2001; assigned as the office car for the Fairmont Tamper concrete tie train during August 1998; last located at Tucson, Az. | ||||
| 906255 | Nov 1964 | 25578 | Apr 1990 | May 1990 | Displayed at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City, Nev. |
| 906256 | May 1967 | 25641 | Oct 1990 | Donated to Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City, Nev. | |
| 906257 | Oct 1964 | 25548 | Oct 1990 | Retained its original yellow body color, but received a green paint patches under its new 906000-series road number. |
