Utah Railway Cabooses

This page was last updated on March 3, 2003

Utah Number	Type	Year Acquired	Notes
50	Wood	1917
51	Wood	1917
52	Wood	1917
53	Wood	1917
54	Wood	1918	UP CA-1 style
55	Wood	1918	UP CA-1 style
56	Wood	1920	UP CA-1 style
57	Wood	1923	UP CA-1 style
58	Wood	1923	UP CA-1 style
59	Wood	1924	UP CA-1 style
60	Wood	1924	UP CA-1 style
61	Wood	1927	UP CA-1 style
62	Steel	1972	Ex UP 25344 (CA-6)
63	Steel	1972	Ex UP 25250 (CA-5)

Wooden Cabooses

From the "Official Manual of Utah Railway Company, No. 2" dated January 1, 1937, updated through May 1, 1944:

Utah 50 - Received 12/1/1917 second-hand from Southern Utah Railroad, purchased on 9/4/1918. Built in 1913 by National Railway Equipment Co. Converted to outfit car 06 on 1/31/1927.

Utah 51 to 53 - Received secondhand from Southern Utah Railroad; delivered on 6/13/1913. Utah 52 rebuilt by Mt. Vernon Car Co., in 1920 after a wreck, received back on 6/20/1920. Utah 52 destroyed on D&RGW on 9/19/1922.

Utah 54, 55 - (UP CA-1 style) Delivered on 2/26/1918, purchased through Union Pacific Equipment Association.

Rebuilt with steel sheathing

Photo of Utah 55 in Rio Grande in Color, Vol. 2, page 49

Utah 55 is now displayed at the Western Mining and Railroad Museum, Helper, Utah

Utah 56 - (UP CA-1 style) Delivered on 6/20/1920.

Utah 57, 58 - (UP CA-1 style) Delivered on 5/12/1923, purchased through Union Pacific Equipment Association. Utah 58 destroyed on Utah Railway, February 1945.

Utah 59, 60 - (UP CA-1 style) Delivered on 7/10/1924. Utah 59 destroyed on D&RGW on 11/11/1941.

Utah 60 was in Utah Railway's Provo yard for several years. They retired it sometime in the 1970s and sold it for scrap to Lowdermilk, who owns the stuff in their equipment yard at Spring Glen, Utah, like the Vanderbuilt tender from a retired Utah Railway steam locomotive. I don't know what happened to it.

Utah 61 - (UP CA-1 style) Delivered on 9/18/1927.

Wooden Cabooses (UP CA-1 style)

Utah Railway has operated coal trains from mines in east central Utah to a connection with Union Pacific at Provo, Utah, since 1917. Many writers over the years have assumed that since Utah Railway operated Union Pacific-design locomotives, cars, and cabooses, Union Pacific must have been either full or part owner of this coal hauling line. This has never been the case. Utah Railway was organized in 1912 as the Utah Coal Railway, and construction began immediately. Utah Railway's parent company was United States Fuel Co., a subsidiary of United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co., which owned extensive coal lands in east central Utah. The line was completed in 1914, and between 1914 and 1917 the railroad was operated under contract by Denver & Rio Grande.

In 1917, Utah Railway took over its own operations due to the company's dissatisfaction with the level of service that D&RG was providing. The main difficulty was D&RG's inability to provide sufficient empty coal cars to fill the shipping needs of Utah Railway's parent company, United States Fuel Co. Union Pacific's involvement came because Utah Railway was a major source of interchange traffic for UP subsidiary San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake at Provo, Utah. To replace the D&RG operations, Utah Railway approached Union Pacific for help in setting up its operational and maintenance organizations, including designing and purchasing rolling stock.

When Utah Railway began operating its own trains on November 1, 1917, after giving a one year notice as required under the D&RG contract, its new operating department put into use six 2-10-2 and three 2-8-8-0s of Union Pacific design. The new equipment also included 1,500 Utah Coal Route drop bottom gondolas, jointly owned between Utah Railway and the newly renamed Los Angeles & Salt Lake (then still jointly owned by UP's OSL subsidiary, and the line's original organizer, Senator William Clark). Included in the initial car fleet were two wooden cabooses, Utah numbers 54 and 55, with steel underframes, built to UP's CA-1 design by Mount Vernon Car. These locomotives, gondolas, and cabooses were purchased through the Union Pacific Equipment Association, which had been organized in October 1905 by the Harriman interests for the purpose of purchasing equipment for use by Union Pacific and its affiliated companies. (Utah Railway also operated four earlier cabooses from predecessor road Southern Utah Railroad. Numbered as Utah 50 to 53, these cabooses were different from UP's CA-1 design, and were not purchased through the Union Pacific Equipment Association.)

A very large majority of Utah's traffic was interchanged with LA&SL at the also-new-in-1917 joint Utah/LA&SL yard in Provo. Over the next nine years, Mt. Vernon furnished another six identical cabooses to Utah Railway, numbered as Utah 56 to 61, making a total of eight cabooses that were almost identical to UP's CA-1 cabooses. Number 56 was delivered in 1920, 57 and 58 were delivered in 1922, 59 and 60 were delivered in 1924, and number 61 was delivered in 1927. Additional steam locomotives and 700 additional jointly-owned Utah Coal Route cars were also purchased in later years. Dispositions for Utah Railway cabooses include Utah 58 being destroyed in a wreck on D&RGW in February 1945, and Utah 59 being destroyed in a wreck on D&RGW on November 11, 1941.

Steel Cabooses

In February 1972, Utah Railway purchased two of that road's unique steel high cupola cabooses. UP 25344 (a UP class CA-6) became Utah 62 and UP 25250 (a UP class CA-5) became Utah 63. These two cars remained in service on Utah Railway until the early 1990s.