SERVES ALL THE WEST
A History of Union Pacific Dieselization, 1934-1982
By Don Strack
This page was last updated on March 13, 2010.
Yard Switch Service and EMD NW2s
Union Pacific's newest 0-6-0 steam switchers were built in 1920 and 1921. By the late 1930s, UP was also using 2-8-0s and small-drivered 2-8-2s in switching service. While this service had not been demanding, UP by 1939 was ready to replace these engines with newer designs. Like several other roads, UP had been watching the development of small diesel locomotives closely, and in that year, accepted EMC's offer to demonstrate examples of its two newest switcher designs. In October 1939, 600-horsepower SW1 demonstrator 911, and 1,000-horspeower NW2 demonstrator 889, arrived on UP property in Omaha. The two units were used extensively by UP in both its Omaha, Neb., and Council Bluffs, Iowa, terminals. At the end of the six-month demonstration period, the railroad found the SW1 to be too light and underpowered for UP's purposes, and returned it to EMC in March 1940. UP, however, found the other locomotive to be satisfactory and purchased it, renumbering it to UP 1000. The following month, UP placed an order with the builder to deliver 14 additional NW2s. Still more NW2s were delivered prior to the imposition of wartime restrictions—10 units in early 1941 (UP 1015-1024), two units in late 1941 (UP 1025, 1026), and nine units in 1942 (UP 1027-1035).
In August 1941, UP had ordered 25 more NW2s from EMD (changed from EMC earlier that year). Two were delivered as UP 1025 and 1026 in October. At the same time, with American industry furnishing so much assistance to the Allies in World War II prior to the U.S. actually entering the war, the federal government placed restrictions on UP's plan to acquire additional diesel switchers. By the following April, UP had negotiated with the War Production Board to acquire nine more (of the original 25-unit order), which were delivered from May to July 1942. The remaining 14 units were canceled on July 14, 1942.
UP still needed additional yard switchers, and acquired 19 American Locomotive Co. S-2s, numbers 1036-1054, a year later, beginning in September 1943. These units were later renumbered to UP 1100-1118. The production of EMD switchers remained blocked for the remainder of the war, but UP still needed additional diesel switchers. To fill this need, the road acquired 33 more Alco S-2s (UP 1119-1151), six Baldwin VO-1000s (UP 1055-1060, renumbered to UP 1200-1205), and a single Fairbanks-Morse H10-44 (UP 1300).
Alco, Baldwin, and Fairbanks-Morse Switchers
After Union Pacific made the decision to dieselize its yard switching fleet in 1940, two difficulties prevented the full implementation of this strategy. Operations officials submitted a budget plan to upper management that would add 15 to 25 diesel switchers each year, with each diesel switch unit replacing steam switchers on a one-for-one basis. The first difficulty was wartime restrictions. Modern switchers were needed due to increasing traffic stemming from supplying the war in Europe, and that same war would soon directly involve the United States. UP selected the 1,000-horsepower NW2 unit from EMD as its diesel switcher of choice. Unfortunately for Union Pacific, the NW2 model was also popular with many other railroads. Just as UP had received its first 25 units, and had ordered another 25 units, wartime restrictions forced the cancellation of 14 of those 25 units, and delayed the final delivery of the remaining 11 units.
UP still needed more diesel switchers, so the federal government allowed the road to order from the other builders, Alco and Baldwin. In 1943 and 1944, the railroad accepted 19 Alco 1,000-horsepower S-2 units and six Baldwin 1,000-horsepower VO-1000 units, all numbered in consecutive number series following the initial NW2s. In early 1945, with the war ending soon, UP was allowed to order 10 more Alco units and 15 more EMD units. The road also acquired a single Fairbanks-Morse 1,000-horsepower unit, an H10-44 numbered UP 1300, to explore the capabilities of the builder's adaptation of its successful opposed-piston submarine diesel engine that had proven itself so well during the war. But the railroad needed still more diesel switchers, a need that was projected to be even greater with the end of the war.
This post-war need for many more diesel switchers brought the second difficulty into focus—the inability of EMD to deliver all the diesel switchers needed by all of America's railroads. EMD had proven its design to the satisfaction of the railroads, but could not build them fast enough. Diesel switchers had shown that they were capable during the war, and many railroads wanted more of them as soon as possible. In early 1945, UP wanted 25 more switchers, but to get them in a timely fashion, the road was forced to split the order: 10 to Alco and 15 to EMD. Twenty-five more Alco units were ordered in mid-1945. Because Alco was not working at the full capacity that EMD was, the Alco units (a total of 35 of them) were delivered in mid- to late 1945, while the 15 EMD units came much later, in mid-1946. EMD was soon able to expand its production, and during 1947 and 1948, it delivered 45 more NW2s to UP. To fill out its need for still more diesel switchers, UP took delivery on five more 1,000-horsepower units from Baldwin, and four more FM H10-44s, all in 1948.
Within two years, EMD had improved its switcher design, using SW7 to designate its then-current 1,200-horsepower model. In that same year, 1950, UP acquired 25 such units, numbering them 1800-1824. In 1953, 42 of EMD's newest, the 1,200-horsepower SW9, came to the road as UP 1825-1866. By 1954, still more switchers were needed. UP asked EMD for more SW9s, but questions surfaced at the top levels of UP's management, following placement of a large order to EMD for GP9 freight road switchers, over the wisdom of depending so heavily on a single builder to dieselize the railroad's operations.
Both the Baldwin and Alco switcher designs had proven to be costly to maintain, and the Alco design for road locomotives (sets of FA/FB cab/booster units furnished to UP in 1947) had proven to be so troublesome that UP hesitated asking for anything other than EMD. Bowing to pressure from its board of directors, the railroad ordered 35 units of Alco's latest 1,000-horsepower model, the S-4, which were delivered from mid-1955 to early 1956. These proved to be UP's last new diesel switchers, due mostly to the low horsepower and lack of flexibility of all purpose-built diesel switchers. UP soon learned that lower-horsepower road-switcher locomotives easily filled the switching role, and, unlike a switcher, could also be used in regular road service.
GE 44-Ton Switching Locomotive
A General Electric light center-cab switching unit, UP 1399, was delivered to UP in March 1947 as the first unit of an intended three-unit order. The model had been designed and built to support single-man operation, after the operating unions had allowed that a unit weighing less than 88,000 pounds (44 tons) could be operated by only one crew member. After testing, the unit was found to be both too light and underpowered, leading UP to cancel the other two units of the order. The unit was first assigned to yard switching duties in the Omaha area, then as shop switcher for Omaha Shops; then in late 1956, it was transferred to the Maintenance of Way Department and renumbered to 03999. It was used at the System Roadway (maintenance of way) Equipment Shop at Pocatello, Idaho, until late 1972. Along the way, it had been renumbered once again, to 903999, in December 1959 during a general renumbering of all roadway equipment, which added the digit 9 as the first digit and additional digits to the end of the number to bring it into the 900000 series.
After its successful introduction in 1939, the Electro-Motive FT cab-unit locomotive was viewed by many industry observers as the clear choice by which railroads would displace steam power from heavy mainline freight service. Although UP had purchased early examples of diesel passenger power from Electro-Motive for its Streamliner fleet, when the builder offered to sell UP its FT locomotive model (at 5,400 horsepower), UP responded by saying that as soon as EMD could build a diesel locomotive that could match the performance of its 4000-class 4-8-8-4 Big Boy locomotives (at approximately 6,300 horsepower) on the Wasatch grade in Utah, then UP would be interested.
Undaunted by this rebuff, EMD went on to sell the FT model to every one of UP's competitors—Santa Fe, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, the end-to-end Rio Grande and Western Pacific roads, and Rock Island, which handled a share of UP's Chicago-Omaha business but also competed with the road for California traffic via its Tucumcari., N.M., gateway with SP. In August 1945, UP President William "Bull" Jeffers believed the FT to be barely adequate for its time, fearing that its technology would soon be obviated by developments in gas-turbine or atomic-power technology. But having said what he did in August 1945, within three months, as a demonstration of his interest in the changing motive power picture, he allowed EMD to test its FT replacement, the F3.
As a comparative side note to UP's staying with steam motive power, railroad historian Dan Cupper points out that Jeffers' cautious stance in the west was similar to that of the conservative Pennsylvania Railroad in the east. PRR, like UP, believed that the future lay with bigger and better steam engines, embarking on a binge of building complex, custom-designed high-horsepower steamers of 6-4-4-6, 4-4-4-4, 4-4-6-4, and 6-8-6 (steam turbine) designs. Although these were not nearly as successful as UP's modern steamers, Pennsy remained unconvinced that the diesel was capable of being anything more than a yard switcher. As with UP's Jeffers, EMD was unsuccessful at enticing PRR to nibble at the FT, and instead sold the model to every one of Pennsy's trunk-line competitors—NYC, Baltimore & Ohio, and Erie Railroad—and some of its other rivals as well, such as Reading.
Earlier, however, Jeffers had been impressed with EMC's efforts. In an October 1938 letter, he wrote that EMC was making "amazing progress in further developing and improving diesel power," identifying the main competition for diesel road locomotives as the steam turbine then under construction at GE, and the then-new 800-class 4-8-4 steam locomotives that Alco had just delivered to UP. He went on to say that UP's 2,000-horsepower diesel passenger model (the E3) represented "an outstanding job," with the price per horsepower, at $85, comparing very favorably with the previous rate of $100 or more. Jeffers' eventual disdain for the FT still lay in the future; while the locomotive was on the drawing board, he was willing to compliment it, saying that it would give the steam builders something to compete with.
Another factor that kept UP from dieselizing earlier was the cost of diesel fuel, which almost tripled just before the war, and was also rising rapidly at war's end. More diesel units meant more diesel fuel, but more steam locomotives could use coal, a resource that the railroad already owned in abundance with its coal mines in Wyoming.
During the final years of World War II, UP was looking seriously at dieselizing its South-Central District, due to that desert region's expensive water and fuel oil facilities. The railroad wanted to dieselize the line with a fleet of double-unit, 6,000-horsepower locomotives. Like most of the nation's other railroads, UP also was making more general plans to upgrade its motive power fleet by replacing the hundreds of steam locomotives that had served so well during the war. At the end of the war, the South-Central District was still all-steam, except for the City of Los Angeles streamliner train that operated 10 times per month.
Both Baldwin and Fairbanks-Morse responded to the projected 6,000-horsepower design specification. Baldwin floated a proposal for two of its very long DR12-8-1500/2 locomotives, nicknamed "Centipedes" for their many wheels (each cab unit of a two-unit set used a 2-D+D-2 wheel arrangement, meaning eight unpowered axles and 16 drive wheels per unit). F-M responded with its proposed design that used three units, each with a 2,000-horsepower version of its proven opposed-piston engine. Due to a lack of manufacturing facilities, the FM locomotives would have to be built under contract at GE's Erie, Pa., factory.
During 1945, as the war was ending, railroads had little from which to choose in the way of a road freight locomotive design, a fact soon discovered by UP and the other roads. EMD was still offering its FT locomotive, and the other builders were frantically gearing up to fill the perceived post-war demand for new locomotives.
The other builders were also settling on the 6,000-horsepower road locomotive, like EMD with A-B-B sets of its then-new E7, first offered in February 1945, and A-B-B-A sets of its then-new F3, first offered in July 1945. All the builders were soon offering the 6,000 horsepower locomotive either as a three-unit set with A1A trucks for passenger service (12 powered axles), or as a four-unit set with B-B trucks for freight service (16 powered axles).
For its freight locomotive, Alco would soon offer its own four-axle 1,500-horsepower carbody unit, later known as the FA/FB, with the first unit being produced in January 1946. Baldwin first offered its own 1,500-horsepower carbody unit in September 1945. For passenger units, the first Alco postwar passenger units, the six-axle 2,000-horsepower PA/PB design, were first produced in June 1946. Baldwin was offering its own six-axle 2,000-horsepower passenger unit, with production of two demonstrators completed in January 1945. UP was still unimpressed, however. A big part of the reason was that the road had just received the last 35 of its 175 modern steam locomotives less than a year earlier, and was satisfied with their performance.
While the diesel builders wanted to produce locomotives that could be connected into multiple-unit consists, UP was looking for single- or double-unit locomotives that could directly replace steam locomotives. UP had learned that the maintenance costs per unit (either steam or diesel) remained basically the same, regardless of the unit's power, and was therefore looking for diesel locomotives that packed more horsepower.
Into this atmosphere came both Baldwin and Fairbanks-Morse. The demonstration tour of Baldwin's number 2000, a 2,000-horsepower A1A-A1A unit, began on the Reading Railroad in January 1945, and ended with the unit's sale to National of Mexico in August of that year. The tour included a trip over Denver & Rio Grande Western between Denver and Salt Lake City, returning to Denver in April. Notably, the unit did not tour on UP. However, Baldwin's potential must have impressed UP. In January 1945, UP President Jeffers approached Baldwin about building a 6,000-horsepower combination freight and passenger locomotive for service between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Within a year, UP ordered Baldwin's massive locomotive (later known as "Centipedes"), made up of two 3,000-horsepower units. But prior to the Baldwin order, the railroad first ordered an example of Fairbanks-Morse's 6,000-horsepower entry.
Erie-Builts
Union Pacific AFE (Authority For Expenditure) 282, dated August 31, 1945, says this: "Purchase one 6,000 horsepower combination freight and passenger locomotive (three units) from Fairbanks-Morse. Price $600,000. For Salt Lake City to Los Angeles service." Because FM did not have the production capacity at its Beloit, Wis., plant, the units were built by General Electric under contract at GE's Erie, Pa., factory, hence the "Erie-built" nickname. UP's units were the first of the model to be completed. A later note attached to the AFE states that the units were geared too high for freight service, but too low for passenger service, and that they were converted to 104 mph gearing for passenger service. The purchase was approved based on satisfactory performance in high-speed passenger service. These units were delivered in late December 1945, and converted to passenger service in May 1946. FM eventually built a total of 54 Erie-built locomotives, including eight cab units and five booster units for UP. (click here for a separate Erie-built article)
Centipedes
In October 1945, two months after the Erie-builts were ordered, UP placed an order for Baldwin Centipedes. AFE 314, dated October 24, 1945, reads, "Purchase one 6,000 horsepower combination passenger and freight locomotive (two units) for operation between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, Calif. From Baldwin Locomotive Works. Total cost of $600,000. Expected delivery during third quarter 1946." These two units were to be UP's diesel answer to their highly successful Big Boy 4-8-8-4 steam locomotives, and were to enter service on the LA&SL between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. The Centipedes were also 4-8-8-4. Using the AAR designation, they were 2-D+D-2.
The order was canceled in April 1947 after a promised August 1946 delivery date became August 1947. In late March 1947 a UP representative who visited the Baldwin factory near Philadelphia found that no material had been marked for the locomotive, or that any "lay-down plans" even existed.
The two units were completed in March 1948 as Baldwin demonstrators 6000 and 6001, and were used in a limited demonstration tour that did not generate any additional sales. Both units were quietly scrapped by Baldwin after furnishing parts for wreck repairs to similar Pennsylvania Railroad and National of Mexico units.
The first example of what Baldwin called its model DR12-8-1500/2, and known to railfans as "Centipedes," was completed as Seaboard Air Line 4500 in December 1945. Thirteen more were completed for SAL between March 1947 and January 1948. Each locomotive generated 3,000 horsepower, rode on eight driving axles, was powered by two diesel engines, and weighed a total of 595,000 pounds. NdeM received 14 units between April 1947 and July 1948, and Pennsylvania received 24 between April 1947 and February 1948. The entire fleet totaled 54 units, all completed between December 1945 and July 1948.
Earlier Union Pacific motive power histories have shown that the two Baldwin units were planned to be numbered UP 998 and 999. We have always been under the assumption that the intended road numbers were UP 998 and 999, as stated over 20 years ago by Baldwin historian John Kirkland. The problem is that those two road numbers would have been way out of sequence for UP's numbering plan at that time. The 900-series numbers were first used on the renumbered FM Erie-builts in May 1946, as UP 981A, 982A, and 983B. If the two Centipedes were indeed to be numbered as UP 998 and 999 (with their intended August 1947 delivery), they would have been UP 998A and 999A, since the A and B suffix scheme was not dropped until early 1948. In mid mid-1946 the entire diesel passenger fleet was renumbered. The numbers assigned were UP 901A to 909B, 921A to 931A, and 951A to 963B (including A units and B units, and all the E7s delivered in August 1946). After the Centipede order was canceled, additional passenger units were delivered in September 1947 in the form of the F3As and F3Bs, delivered as UP 964A to 978B. While the numbers 998A and 999A seem a possibility, new information points to different road numbers.
Recent research has found a reference to a drawing for the painting, lettering and numbering of these planned units. It is UP drawing 357-ST-4553, dated March 4, 1947. It shows the planned road numbers as being UP 1600A and 1601A. Unfortunately, the drawing itself isn't available at this time, but it is shown in an index of thousands of other UP drawings of the mid 1930s through the late 1970s.
These two road numbers for the two Centipedes fall right in line with UP's numbering scheme at the time: 1000s for EMD switchers, 1100s for Alco switchers (and later road units), 1200s for Baldwin switchers (and later road units), 1300s for F-M switchers (and later road units), 1400s for EMD road freight units, and 1500s for Alco road freight units. The A-B-A set of F-M Erie builts had just recently been renumbered to the 900 series, along with all of the road's EMC and EMD passenger units. In 1948, after the Centipedes were canceled, the Alco road freight units were renumbered to the 1600s to allow ever more EMD road freight units to occupy the 1500 series.
(Imagine this beast (a Seaboard Air Line unit) in UP yellow and gray.)
The First EMD Cab Units
Union Pacific continued to embrace modern steam locomotives right through 1944: 4-6-6-4 Challengers delivered in 1936-37 and 1942-1944; 4-8-4- Northerns delivered in 1937, 1939, and 1944; and 4-8-8-4 Big Boys delivered in 1941 and 1944. This was why when the EMD salesman came calling sometime in 1942-1943, UP's President Jeffers told him, "When you can equal the Big Boy up there," he said, pointing to the picture of a steam locomotive on the wall of his office, "come around and we'll talk business."
This was typical Jeffers, but because he had a profitable railroad to run, he was always looking to cut costs and continued to look at the new diesel technology. By mid 1945, UP's management was aware of the increase in traffic that was expected with the end of World War II, and saw that their fleet of modern steam locomotives may not be able to handle the increase. Also, the board of directors was putting pressure for UP management to become a modern railroad, with new diesel locomotives.
In July 1945, EMD completed a set of demonstrator locomotives with design changes meant to replace its earlier FT model. This new model was known as F3 and included all new technology for both the diesel engine, and the electrical gear. This demonstrator set was sent on the road, including a tour on UP. A newly discovered railfan report by Bill Garner in November 1945 (published in the December 1945 issue of Pacific Railroad Society's Wheel Clicks) reported that, "The Union Pacific has been trying out a big General Motors diesel on the hill. In fact, it is being tried out between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. After these trials it is to be tried out east from Ogden and compared with the 'Big Boy' mallets."
The locomotive that was tested was likely EMD's number 291, a set of two F3 cab units and two F3 booster units (A-B-B-A), and the report falls right in line with UP's interest in the Fairbanks-Morse and Baldwin cab units, as covered earlier. The tour must have impressed UP's management, because a year later, the board of directors approved the concept of buying diesel locomotives in quantity.
It took a complete change in top management at Union Pacific to prompt the road to become serious about modernizing its motive power, and begin buying large numbers of diesel locomotives. George F. Ashby replaced Jeffers as UP president upon Jeffers' mandatory retirement in January 1946 at age 70. Ashby was almost the complete opposite of Jeffers in his approach to management, and he proceeded to do everything Jeffers would not have done, including ordering a large fleet of EMD F3s and Alco FA/FBs in 1946-1947. Having an extensive accounting background, rather than an extensive operating background, which Jeffers had, Ashby took the attitude that the builders were offering a good product, and that UP should take advantage of these new standardized locomotives. By contrast, Jeffers' view (a holdover from the steam days) was that the builders should build locomotives to Union Pacific's specifications, or at least to UP's unique operating environment. It was a question of who would spend the dollars in engineering and developing the much-needed replacement motive power. By buying designs already engineered by the builders, UP could spend its own money on improving its own right-of-way and facilities.
Another factor to be considered in whether Union Pacific should dieselize its motive power fleet was its image as a modern road to both current and potential investors. Specific studies and hard data aside, by the end of World War II, the use of diesel locomotives by any particular road was seen as evidence of that road being thoroughly modern and up-to-date. So, even if UP's fleet of 175 modern (built after 1935) steam locomotives was performing with costs and results comparable to the new diesel locomotives of other railroads, UP's management wanted to be viewed by the Wall Street investment community as modern and up-to-date.
In mid-December 1946, less than a year after Jeffers' retirement, the road placed an order for 133 units, at a cost of $20.4 million, with delivery to take place during the third quarter of 1947. The order covered units from Alco and EMD. All of this power was intended to allow the complete dieselization of the railroad west of Green River, Wyo., or at least the South-Central District, from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles.
Early Non-Streamliner Passenger Units
Beginning in 1947, UP began replacing all steam power on passenger trains on the South-Central District (the former Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad, between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, Calif.), especially non-Streamliner trains, such as the Pony Express, the Los Angeles Limited, and the Utahn. The first units to be used were the A-B-A set of Fairbanks-Morse Erie-built units. These had been converted to passenger units in May 1946, and were the first units to carry the road's then-new passenger-designation 900-series numbers, as 981A, 982A and 983B. To begin this conversion from steam to diesel, UP in September 1947 received its first passenger F3 units from EMD—five cab units, numbered 964A-968A, and 10 booster units, numbered 969B-978B. These were operated in A-B-B sets that each made a 4,500-horsepower locomotive, to be used on the trains that usually ran with fewer cars.
Also in September 1947, for the heavier passenger trains, UP received its first Alco 2,000-horsepower PA/PB units, numbered 994A-997A and 998B and 999B. These ran in A-B-A sets that added together to make a 6,000-horsepower locomotive. In November, the road's first additional Fairbanks-Morse Erie units arrived, numbered as 984A, 985A, 986B, and 987B. Because of their similar electrical gear (General Electric), the Alco and FM units were used together on many occasions.
In 1948 and 1949, UP took delivery of additional units from all three builders. Union Pacific eventually operated a fleet of 54 units for its non-Streamliner passenger trains, including 11 F3 passenger cab units, 16 F3 passenger booster units, eight Alco PA cab units, six Alco PB booster units, eight FM Erie cab units, and five FM booster units. These units remained in passenger service, usually on the South-Central District, and at times operating with the 12 1400-series F3 booster units also equipped for passenger service, until the arrival of a large fleet of E8 and E9 locomotives in 1953-1956. The arrival of these newer locomotives allowed UP to convert the earlier units to freight service. In the fall of 1954, the Alco units were moved from the South-Central District to the Eastern District.
In the general renumbering of early 1948, the Alco units were renumbered from the 900 series to the 600 series; the FM units were renumbered to the 700 series; and the EMD units were renumbered to the low-900 series.
In 1947, Union Pacific began the dieselization of its freight locomotive fleet. That year, the road acquired a total of 129 passenger, freight, and switch diesel locomotives, from all four builders (apparently, four units of the original 133-unit order were not delivered). Included were the company's first road switchers: UP 1190, an Alco RSC-2, and UP 1191, an Alco RS-2. Both were delivered in February 1947.
The diesel program continued into 1948, when UP bought 233 more locomotives, again for all types of service and from all four builders. Included were additional road switchers. UP 1250, a DRS-6-4-15 that had been a former Baldwin demonstrator, came in January 1948. Alco supplied three RS-2s and 10 RSC-2s from February to April 1948.
After initially purchasing a large, new fleet of diesels in 1947 and 1948, Union Pacific held back on further mass acquisitions over the next five years, buying only 19 units in 1949 and only 13 units in 1950. During 1951, the railroad bought 65 locomotives, including a group of F7 units, successor to the F3 model. UP purchased only 18 diesels in 1952, many of them actually being units that were rebuilt from wrecked locomotives. The road continued to assign its diesel fleet for maximum savings, and re-assign its steam fleet, to get as much mileage and return on its investment in the large fleet of modern steam locomotives that had been purchased just 10 years before.
Traffic that had been swelled by postwar industrial growth and the war in Korea again forced UP to purchase additional diesel locomotives to modernize its fleet. In 1953, UP bought 121 units, including SD7s, GP7s, SW9s, E8s, and gas-turbines. The expansion of the diesel roster continued into 1954, when the road bought 274 diesels, including GP9s, E9s, and still more gas-turbines. In 1955 and 1956, the modernization of the passenger and switcher fleets was the emphasis, as the railroad bought EMD E9s and Alco S-4s—a total of 65 locomotives in 1955 and 23 in 1956. During the following year, 1957, UP purchased 100 GP9s (50 A-units and 50 B-units), the delivery of which in effect brought an end to the use of steam power on Union Pacific.
Alco RSC-2 and RS-2 Road Switchers
In one of the earliest uses of diesel locomotives in freight service on UP, Alco furnished an RSC-2-model six-axle (four of them powered), 1,500-horsepower demonstrator road switcher in March 1947 to show the railroad what a road switcher could do. Alco numbered the unit 1190 and painted it in UP's yellow and gray, but without UP lettering. The railroad put the unit to work on its Laramie, North Park & Western subsidiary, operating out of Laramie, Wyo. (later this line became known as the 111-mile Coalmont Branch). On April 29, 1947, UP management approved an AFE to purchase this locomotive, although the sale was not made final until mid-March 1948. The request to purchase the unit came after the unit had tested on both the LNP&W, and on branches in Washington, during which it had shown itself capable of handling 450 tons (about nine cars) more than the then-currently assigned 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotives. And it would allow the abandonment of LNP&W coaling facilities, plus at least four LNP&W steam locomotives (seven LNP&W 2-8-2s were retired in May and June 1947).
After the success of the 60-day RSC-2 demonstration, and the purchase of that unit, UP bought 10 more RSC-2s and five of their four-axle brothers, the mechanically identical RS-2. This was authorized in the January 1948 AFE that approved the purchase of 188 additional diesel locomotives. The RSC-2s were used on the branches with very light rail and bridges, including the Cache Valley Branch in Utah, while the RS-2s were to be used on the newer branches with heavier rail, and as heavy switchers.
With the arrival of 10 more units (UP 1180-1189) from February to April 1948, it was an Alco RSC-2, known then simply as a "six-axle Alco," that bumped UP's Shay steam locomotives from their assigned home terminal at Tintic Junction in central Utah (Shays 59 and 61 were retired in February 1949 and September 1948, respectively).
Union Pacific selected the EMD F3 and the Alco FA/FB locomotive with which to dieselize its freight operations between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Each was the most recent offering from its respective builder, each generated 1,500 horsepower, and UP purchased each in matched A-B-B-A sets of cab units and booster units. In 1947, UP received five A-B-B-A locomotive sets in the 1400 class from EMD, and eight A-B-B-A locomotive sets in the 1500 class from Alco. These EMD units became the first of a fleet of 89 cab units and 90 booster units of the F3 model, with additional F7 units coming in later years.
The first units of the first order of F3s arrived on UP in May 1947, numbered 1400A-1403A for the cab units, and 1442B-1445B for the booster units. They were delivered in A-B-B-A sets that made up a locomotive of 6,000 horsepower. The vacant number slots between 1404A and 1442B were intended for the remainder of the order, which took until March 1948 to see full completion. The split-up delivery pattern—first in May 1947, then in October 1947, then from January to March 1948—stemmed from multiple causes: EMD faced a full production schedule; and with training of maintenance personnel taking place, UP did not want more units operating than it had trained personnel to maintain.
UP's first F3 passenger units, numbered as 964A-968A and 969B-978B, were delivered in September and October 1947. These five cab units and 10 booster units were generally used in A-B-B consists on the road's secondary passenger trains on the South-Central District, including the Pony Express and the Los Angeles Limited.
These first units were numbered in the earlier A and B suffix scheme first used on passenger units in 1946, with the group of 30 booster units (1442B-1471B) numbered consecutively after the group of 42 cab units (1400A-1441A). By the time the final units of the order were being delivered in early 1948, UP had ordered an additional group of 36 cab units and 44 booster units. In a change from the earlier A and B suffix scheme, and like other railroads, UP decided to number the A-B-B-A sets in similar and matching number series. The last units of this first order were delivered in this later numbering scheme, with consecutive-numbered cab units, and booster units numbered with the same even-number as the lead cab unit, but with either a B or a C suffix. In this newer system, there were no odd numbered booster units. The first units of the first order, 1400A-1423A and 1442B-1465B became (along with the final units in the order) 1400-1441 and 1400B,C-1428B,C.
By late 1947, UP president George Ashby was very pleased with the road's diesel operation, after the delivery of just two F3 A-B-B-A sets from EMD and five Alco FA/FB A-B-B-A sets for freight service, and five F3 A-B-B sets and two Alco PA/PB A-B-A sets for passenger service. On October 10, 1947, he wrote that diesel operations were proving to be so successful that he recommended the purchase of additional diesel power for the earliest possible delivery. Orders for new locomotives were to be spread among the builders, based on their ability to make early delivery. The purchase of 32 additional 6,000-horsepower freight locomotives would allow diesel-only operations west of Green River, Wyo., and between Salt Lake City and Pocatello, Idaho. Six 6,000-horsepower passenger locomotives would allow diesel operation of all regular and extra passenger trains west of Green River. Twenty-five 1,000-horsepower switching locomotives would allow substitution of steam in North Platte, Neb., and Denver, and in UP's share of Ogden, Utah, operations.
In January 1948, management approved an AFE covering the purchase of 188 diesel locomotives. Included were new Alco road switchers, new Alco, Baldwin, and EMD yard switchers, new Alco passenger units, and 36 F3 cab units and 44 F3 booster units from EMD. These two groups of units from EMD would be used to make up 29 full A-B-B-A sets, including seven as 1550-class units for the Northwestern District, the road's Idaho, Oregon, and Washington Divisions, made up of the former Oregon-Washington Railway & Navigation Co., and the former Oregon Short Line Railroad. Twenty-two other A-B-B-A sets were for the general freight pool west of Green River. Delivery took place between April and December 1948 for the 1400-series units (1442-1463, and 1430B,C-1458B,C), and between October 1948 and January 1949 for the 1550-1563 and 1550B,C-1562B,C groups. The three passenger sets were delivered as 905-910 and 905B,C, 907B,C, 909B,C in May and June 1948. To serve as protection power for all of the road's passenger trains, 12 of the F3 booster units (1430B,C-1440B,C) were equipped with steam generators and water tanks.
The newly delivered F3 units soon took over pulling UP's most important freight trains. One indication was the 46 day period between mid August and late September 1948, as recorded in the Form 2508, Station Record of Train Movement, for Altamont, Wyoming. During one week alone, August 15-21, there were 154 diesel-powered trains, and 26 steam-powered trains; a six to one ratio. The recorded engine numbers also show that UP was very soon mixing the A-B-B-A sets into whatever number sequence was convenient to best suit its daily operations. A similar six to one ratio was shown when comparing the trains powered by EMD cab units, the F3s, with trains powered by Alco cab units, the FA/FB units. In that same one week period in mid August, there were 132 EMD-powered trains compared to 22 Alco-powered trains. (see "Union Pacific Operations at Altamont, Wyoming, August-September 1948" by Frank Peacock, in The Streamliner, Volume 2, Number 1, page 29)
To better balance the motive power between the South-Central District and the Northwestern District, both being operated by sets of both Alco units and EMD units, UP in 1950 reassigned all of the Alco units to the South-Central District, and all of the EMD units were assigned to the Northwestern District. Included in this change of assignment, and to designate additional units to be assigned solely to the Idaho Division (the corporate entity known as the Oregon Short Line), a group of 29 1400-class cab units and 31 1440-class booster units were regeared, reballasted, and renumbered to the new 1500-1528 and 1500B,C-1530B,C series. These 60 units, along with the other 28 units in the 1550-series, were collectively known as "Short Line" units, and generally operated between Pocatello, Idaho, and Huntington, Ore. This assignment for these units was possible after agreements with the operating unions on the former OSL that permitted heavier units, allowing heavier trains.
As UP continued to dieselized more of its operations, the road in March 1951 accepted delivery of units that were EMD's improved replacement for its earlier F3 model. These newer units were called F7s, but produced the same 1,500 horsepower as the F3, the major difference being in better traction motors and automatic transition between throttle positions. UP acquired five F7 cab units numbered 1466-1470 and 10 F7 booster units numbered 1466B,C-1474B,C. In October 1951, the road received 10 more F7 cab units, numbered 1471-1480, and 20 more F7 booster units, numbered 1476B,C-1494B,C. From the assigned road numbers, one can see that the F7s were delivered in A-B-B sets.
In late 1951, two F3 cab units and two F3 booster units were wrecked. EMD rebuilt these units and delivered them back to UP in early 1952 as F7 units, numbered as the 1464 set (1464, 1464B, 1464C, 1465).
Always looking for ways to cut costs, UP in April 1952 acquired two cab and booster sets from EMD at a reduced price. The units had been completed for the Mexican National Railroad, which was not in a financial position to accept the units. The two cab units were FP7s, the passenger version of EMD's F7 locomotive, which was four feet longer than a standard F7 to accommodate a steam generator and water tanks. The two matching F7B booster units were also equipped with steam generators and water tanks. These units were delivered to UP as 910, 911 and 910B and 910C.
Also in 1952 UP purchased an F7 A-B-B-A set that briefly ran in an unsuccessful four-trip demonstration on Norfolk & Western Railway (see "N&W's secret weapons" by Robert A. Le Massena, Trains magazine, November 1991, pages 64-69) (photo). UP purchased the set prior to their entering service on N&W, getting them at a reduced price. These were built in September 1952 and delivered to UP in December 1952, numbered 1481, 1482, 1496B, and 1496C.
A third F7 demonstrator came to UP in January 1953. This had been built in 1950 as one of the earliest F7 cab units, and it entered service on UP as number 1483.
With the final delivery of this last F7, the F7 fleet stood at 20 F7 cab units, two FP7 cab units, and 36 F7 booster units.
American Locomotive Co. delivered the first of its new 1,500-horsepower carbody units to Union Pacific in June 1947. By September 1948, the road had received a total of 44 cab units (later known as the FA) and 44 booster units (later known as the FB). These were assigned to operate between Ogden, Utah, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. Others were also assigned to operate on the Kansas main line. During the units' first two years, UP tried them in several assignments, including its heaviest main line across Wyoming.
The Alco FA/FB units soon showed increasing maintenance costs. Problems with their diesel engines began to keep them in the shop for extended periods of time. In late 1953, when UP placed an order for 170 GP9s, the corporate board of directors asked why such a large order was going to just one builder. UP President Arthur E. Stoddard, who had succeeded George Ashby in March 1949, answered the query by stating that by mid-1952, the railroad had found that current Alco locomotives cost 41.7 percent greater than EMD; EMD was more dependable; and Alco locomotives already on the railroad required a changeout of 75 percent of their components after 150,000 miles, taking 10 days of shop time. This was compared to EMD locomotives requiring only an engine change after 445,000 miles, taking just 20 hours of shop time. Economics was clearly on the side of EMD.
With the arrival of the EMD GP9s in 1954, the Alco units were displaced from their South-Central District assignment and moved to the Eastern District, which was mostly level, and less taxing for the troublesome Alco units, allowing the retirement of still more steam locomotives. At the time of their reassignment, the Alco units were put through a rebuilding program that replaced and upgraded many of their most troublesome components. The heavy shopping was completed at both Los Angeles and Omaha, and corrected many of the problems. The units entered service in Kansas and Nebraska, where they operated in mostly solid sets until the early 1960s, when they started to spend increasing amounts of time in storage lines whenever a downturn in traffic occurred. Because they were not needed by UP, except in the times of heaviest traffic, several were leased during 1963-1964 to Canadian Pacific in southern Ontario, and for at least one trip west from Ogden in March 1964, to Southern Pacific.
The largest percentage of Fairbanks-Morse locomotives used the 38D opposed piston engine, with 8-1/8 inch diameter cylinders. This engine was developed, along with the 38F diesel engine, with 5-1/4 inch cylinder diameter, in response to the U. S. Navy's need during the early 1930s for a compact, lightweight diesel engine to power its new fleet of submarine boats. This Navy program also led to Winton's 201 diesel engine (later used by General Motors for its diesel locomotives), and Cooper-Bessemer's FW diesel engine, which evolved into the company's FDL diesel engine, later used in General Electric's line of diesel locomotives. (Kirkland, John F. The Diesel Builders, Fairbanks-Morse and Lima-Hamilton, Special 98, Interurban Press, 1985, p. 22.)
The first railroad application of the 38D8-1/8 diesel engine was in a rail motor car for Southern Railway in 1939. (Kirkland, p. 23) The entire Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine production capacity from 1939 on for manufacturing opposed piston engines was taken up to provide the Navy with engines for its submarine fleet, being greatly expanded to protect Atlantic shipping between the U. S. and Great Britain. After the U. S. entry into the war in 1941, the F-M facility was expanded with government financial assistance to ensure sufficient opposed piston engine production capacity to see Allied forces through the war. (Kirkland, p. 26)
By 1943, F-M was seen as having an excess production capacity beyond possible post war projections. This excess capacity resulted in F-M being authorized to begin design and initial production of its own switch locomotive. To expedite this new design, F-M decided to essentially build a copy of the currently available switcher from Baldwin, using its own opposed piston engine in place of the Baldwin De La Vergne design, but still using the same Westinghouse-design electrical gear. (Kirkland, p. 26)
The result of this design effort was the F-M H10-44 1,000-horsepower, four-axle switcher. The first example completed was for the road that directly provided railroad service to the F-M plant at Beliot, Wis.: Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, better known simply as the Milwaukee Road. The locomotive was essentially a Baldwin locomotive powered by the F-M opposed piston engine, and was completed on August 21, 1944. A second example, for Chicago & North Western number 1036, followed in November 1944, and a third was completed for AT&SF in April 1945. F-M's fourth H10-44 (order LD4) was completed for Union Pacific in May 1945 as UP D.S.1300 (the D.S. prefix meaning Diesel Switch).
In August 1945, UP ordered a three-unit, 6,000 horsepower locomotive from F-M. The cost for this combination freight and passenger locomotive was pegged at $600,000, and it was ordered operate between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Los Angeles, Calif. (Union Pacific AFE 282, August 31, 1945) The order was accepted as F-M order LD6, the sixth locomotive to be built by this new builder. It was delivered in December 1945 as UP 50-M, with the three units (A-B-A) sub-numbered as 50-M-1A, 50-M-3B, and 50-M-2A. The M suffix stood for Motor, and fell in line with the road's other diesel power, with numbers such as 5-M for its E3s, and 7-M to 9-M for its E6s. The Motor suffix also matched the numbering plan used for UP's diesel switching locomotives, which were being delivered with a D.S. prefix, such as the F-M H10-44 1000 horsepower switcher numbered as D.S. 1300, delivered in May, just seven months before. D.S. 1300 for UP was only F-M's fourth locomotive built (order LD4), and as mentioned, the sixth order (LD6) was for the Erie built units.
UP's Erie-built units ended their careers in the Northwest on secondary passenger trains. UP's other Fairbanks-Morse units ended their careers on the railroad's Eastern District. Richard Schmeling remembers them well:
"The UP H10-44s did end their active service life for the UP on the eastern end of the system, but they were not here for very long. The FM power eventually became bunched in the Pacific Northwest and, like the F-units and Alco FAs, as they got older, were sent east to Nebraska to work out their final days before being taken off the roster and disposed of at the Omaha shops. In the early 1960s, the Council Bluffs yard was almost exclusively FM-dominated with the UP 1300-1304 all there and usually one of the H15-44s as well. Although the H15-44s and H16-44s were assigned to Lincoln as the Lincoln switcher, none of the H10-44s made it down here, according to my photo records. Unlike the H10-44s and the H15-44s, the H20-44s were not extensively used in Nebraska before they were retired." (Richard Schmeling, Letter To The Editor, Diesel Era, Volume 4, Number 6, p.56)
UP's first Fairbanks-Morse locomotives were an A-B-A set of Erie-built passenger units (the 50M set), and a single 1,000-horsepower yard switcher (UP 1300) in 1945. Later, in January and February 1947, the road acquired four more 1,000-horsepower switchers (UP 1301-1304). The growing experience with the FM opposed-piston power plant soon lead to additional orders of locomotives with this unique design of prime mover. August 1947 brought five heavy-duty 2,000-horsepower units (UP 1360-1364) for helper service in Southern California. In November and December, six more 2,000-horsepower units (UP 1365-1370) arrived, including two units (UP 1365, 1366) that had been built in June and which had been featured in FM's exhibit at a railroad suppliers' trade show at Atlantic City, N.J. In November 1947, the road acquired four more Erie-built passenger units—two cab units (UP 984A and 985A) and two booster units (UP 986B and 987B).
In January 1948, UP added dynamic braking to five of the 2,000-horsepower units assigned to helper service at San Bernardino and Kelso, Calif. This feature would reduce brakeshoe wear and minimize the hazard of wheel failures due to overheating, when returning light on heavy descending grades. By mid-1948, the FM units had replaced steam locomotives in helper service on both Cajon Pass (San Bernardino) and on Cima Hill (Kelso).
Five 1,500-horsepower F-M road switchers (UP 1325-1329) were delivered in April and May 1948, also for service in Southern California. At the same time, in April and May 1948, four Erie-built cab units (UP 704-707) and two Erie-built booster units (UP 704B, 706B) joined the roster. By this time, the other Erie-built units also had been renumbered in the 700 series. The entire group was converted to freight service in 1953, with the arrival of more E8 units from EMD. The FM units were renumbered to the 650 series at that time.
By 1950, Fairbanks-Morse had begun production of its 1,600-horsepower road switcher, known as the H16-44. In August 1950, UP acquired three of these units, numbered 1340-1342. They were purchased to allow the release of the three of the non-dynamic-brake-equipped 2,000-horsepower units for use in the retarder classification yard at North Platte, Neb.
The performance of the FM units was not as successful as UP had wished. In 1950, UP transferred the FM units out of Southern California, and for more than a year, the units were replaced by steam locomotives in helper service. In late 1951, UP took delivery of eight new 2,400-horsepower heavy switcher TR5 cow-calf units from EMD. These newer EMD units replaced the steam locomotives in both helper service and heavy switching and transfer service. The FM units were reassigned to the new terminal in Hinkle, Ore., and were used in road service between Hinkle and Spokane, Wash. The switchers were moved to the Eastern District. In their final years, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, all of the Fairbanks-Morse units were assigned to the eastern end of the Eastern District. A railfan report from 1961 stated that several F-M units were seen in a dead line in Portland, Ore., with at least two units being scrapped at a private scrap yard. No specific unit numbers were given.
Alco-GE 4,500-Horsepower Gas-Turbines
Because Union Pacific was seeking the ideal 6,000-horsepower freight locomotive during 1945, it should not be surprising that when General Electric in 1946 announced that it would pursue gas-turbine technology for railroad applications, UP would be interested. GE intended to apply to stationary power and railroad applications what it had learned in furnishing the first jet aircraft engines. The locomotive application was to be similar to what Brown Boveri of Switzerland had built for Swiss Federal Railways in 1939, and for British Railways in 1940.
GE's partner in the railroad locomotive venture was the same one with which it had teamed since 1940 on a line of diesel-electrics, American Locomotive Co. The first gas-turbine locomotive for the North American market was completed in November 1948, and entered its initial testing phase as Alco-GE number 101, operating on the Nickel Plate and Pennsylvania railroads. In June 1949, GE and UP announced that the double-ended, 4,500-horsepower locomotive would begin an extended test operating as Union Pacific number 50. Tests began right away and continued for 21 months, with the unit running more than 101,000 miles in all types of service, on all major routes on UP. It was returned to GE in April 1951. In December 1950, four months before the tests with UP 50 were completed, UP set aside funds to purchase 10 additional, nearly identical locomotives to operate over its Wyoming main line. The first of this new group, UP 51, was delivered in January 1952, and the last, UP 60, was delivered in August 1953. These first 10 gas-turbines had a full-width carbody and became known as the "Standard Turbines." Fifteen more were ordered in late 1952, but came in a different carbody configuration, which featured outside crew walkways. These 15 units were delivered as UP 61-75 between March and October 1954, and soon became known as "Veranda Turbines."
By 1954, these new turbines were exerting a positive impact on UP's bottom line, compared to both steam locomotives and diesel locomotives. During 1954, steam costs were found to be $145.14 per 1,000 gross ton-miles, and diesel costs were set at $84.03 per 1,000 gross ton-miles. The turbines came in even lower, at $69.19 per 1,000 gross ton-miles. But to maintain these lower costs, the turbines had to be running almost constantly, leaving little operational flexibility. Although diesel costs were as much as 20 percent higher, their operational flexibility made them the desired motive power on many trains throughout the Union Pacific system.
Additional statistics for turbine operation showed that they were averaging 8,000 miles and 400 hours per month, with a 78 to 80 percent availability. Union Pacific was very pleased with its gas-turbine fleet, and in early 1956, ordered still more, to be delivered as two-unit, 8,500-horsepower units. These will be discussed later.
