What's New at UtahRails.net

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What's New at UtahRails

[Most recent entry listed first.]

December 14, 2024

Steam Street Car -- Added a note about the steam streetcar that was used on the Salt Lake City Railroad street railroad in 1874. The Remington steam street car was patented by William Baxter in 1871, and Salt Lake City received theirs in July 1874. Thanks to Matt Mihalo for sharing his research on this rare bit of Salt Lake City history.

Steam Dummies -- Updated the list of steam street car dummy engines used on street railways. Baldwin records show a total of nine engines built for the Ogden City Railway in 1889-1890. All were sold in 1890-1891 when the railroad electrified; one went to Provo, and two went to Great Salt Lake & Hot Springs (later Bamberger).

December 2, 2024

Granite For The Temple -- Extensive updates to the Granite For The Temple page, adding new research for the movement of granite blocks to the Salt Lake temple. It started with a plank railroad in 1851 to move sandstone from Red Butte canyon to the temple block, then when granite was substituted for sandstone, a canal was planned from Little Cottonwood canyon. The canal plan failed and beginning in 1860 stone was then transported by wagon. In 1872 the railroad was completed to Sandy, and the next year the railroad was completed to the granite quarry itself. From then until the last stone was moved in 1892, the stone was moved by rail.

D&RGW Little Cottonwood Branch -- Rearranged three pages and created a separate page for the Rio Grande Little Cottonwood Branch, which extended east from Midvale to Sandy, then to Little Cottonwood canyon. The branch was built as narrow gauge in 1873, and the portion from Midvale to Wasatch, site of the granite quarry at the mouth of the canyon was converted to standard gauge in 1891. The portion in the canyon above Wasatch remained as narrow gauge, including a large portion that was operated in the early years as a horse tramway.

November 23, 2024

Ramsey Transfer -- Added a new page about the Ramsey Transfers on the Oregon Short Line in Pocatello and Salt Lake City. A Ramsey Transfer Apparatus was used to change a railroad car from standard gauge trucks to narrow gauge trucks, and vice versa.

November 22, 2024

Common Standard -- Updated, rearranged and consolidated four separate pages that cover the use of Harriman-era Common Standard designs on Union Pacific.

November 21, 2024

Big Boy Differences -- Information about the differences between the 1941 order of 4-8-8-4 Big Boy locomotives, and the 1944 order.

Don Strack Railroad Map Collection -- Added a link to the ArchivesWest finding aid for the collection of railroad maps held by the University of Utah Special Collections, donated by Don Strack in 2017.

November 20, 2024

UP Baldwin Road Switchers -- Added a new section to the UP Diesel Story, about UP's seven Baldwin road switchers.

November 19, 2024

UP Passenger Files -- Added four files with additional information about Union Pacific's passenger trains.

November 17, 2024

UP Early Passenger Trains, 1869-1870 -- Added a new page transcribed from compiled typewritten notes that are part of the "Historical Catalogue" held by the Union Pacific Museum in Council Bluffs.

November 16, 2024

D&RGW Pleasant Valley Branch -- Added a new page with information about D&RGW's Pleasant Valley Branch that connects with the mainline at Colton, and extends south through Scofield to Clear Creek. The earliest part of the branch was completed as narrow gauge in 1879 to serve the first coal mine in the region. The connection between Colton and Scofield was completed in 1882, and the branch was extended to serve coal mines south of Scofield, reaching Clear Creek in 1899. The branch remains in service today as Union Pacific's Pleasant Valley Subdivision.

November 13, 2024

D&RGW NW2 #7000, later #100 -- Updated four pages with additional information about D&RGW #100, delivered as #7000 in February 1941 and renumbered to #100 in September 1941 with the arrival of Alco S-2 switchers 101-104, also in September 1941.

D&RGW Locomotive Chronology -- Updated the D&RGW Locomotive Chronology to include the test of an Alco HH900 in January 1938.

November 12, 2024

"Diesels Aid the Rio Grande" -- The text of an article from Railway Age in August 1946, covering D&RGW's use of diesel locomotives.

November 10, 2024

Rio Grande Caboose Roster Summary -- Added a new section to the Rio Grande Caboose Index page, showing a basic summary listing of Rio Grande (D&RG - RGW- D&RGW) cabooses, both wood and steel.

November 9, 2024

UP Cabooses at the Stuhr Museum, Grand Island, Nebraska -- Updated the UP Caboose Retirement page to include a section about the two former UP cabooses at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, Nebraska. The two cabooses were displayed as UP "2580" and "UP 5280," both of which are not their correct numbers. Research has found that "UP 2580" was ex UP 3601, donated to the museum in 1960, and that "UP 5280" was Mount Hood #7, ex UP 3201, donated to the museum in 1970. The former UP 3601 is still at the museum, displayed with UP 2-8-0 437. The former UP 3201 was moved to Cheyenne in 2018 for preservation by High Plains Railroad Preservation.

November 8, 2024

UP Steam Tender Data -- Updated the Union Pacific Steam Tender Data page to include information recently found in the UtahRails digital archive. This includes 14 UP tenders sold to SP, and dispositions of 16 Class 18-C tenders converted to fuel oil cars.

November 4, 2024

Russian Hill Comments -- Added a new page about the early Streamliner car "Russian Hill," built in 1941 and used on the City of San Francisco, jointly owned by UP, SP and C&NW. Sole ownership passed to C&NW in 1945, and the car was leased back to Pullman for operation. The car was renamed to "Hoover Dam" in 1951 and was used by Pullman in a variety of assignments after it was withdrawn from City of San Francisco service. The car was returned to C&NW operation in March 1956, and was retired by C&NW in 1958, and sold for scrap.

October 30, 2024

WP Interlocking Tower In Utah -- A brief summary of WP's single interlocking tower in Utah, as part of an eventual larger page with notes about WP in Utah.

October 26, 2024

D&RGW Goshen Valley Branch -- Rearranged three pages and consolidated all information about the Goshen Valley Railroad, and the later D&RGW Goshen Valley Branch, into a single page, spanning the years 1918 to 1972.

October 25, 2024

Last Spike Monument -- Added a new section to the SP Promontory Branch page, describing the Last Spike monument at Promontory.

Tale Of The Lucin -- Added a page with Don Strack's review of the book, "Tale of the Lucin: A Boat, a Railroad and the Great Salt Lake." By David Peterson, published in 2001.

October 24, 2024

D&RGW Tintic Branch -- Rearranged three files and consolidated all information about the RGW-D&RG-D&RGW Tintic Branch into a single page, spanning the years 1891 to 2016.

October 22, 2024

Carbon County Coal Camps -- Added a new page with the text of Chuck Zehnder's history of the Carbon County Coal Camps, self-published by him in 1984. He was editor of the local Sun Advocate newspaper at the time.

October 21, 2024

EMD Antitrust Case -- Added a new page of a collection of research notes about the federal government's antitrust case against General Motors for what it claimed was GM's monopoly of the locomotive market. The page includes comments by Jerry Pinkepank, received in October 2024, as well as links to the court cases and to the Senate antitrust testimony in 1955.

October 20, 2024

Boston Consolidated Experimental Mill -- Updated the Bingham MIlls page to include information about the Boston Consolidated experimental mill, built in 1905 and located in the middle area of Bingham Canyon, near the Ohio Copper loading bins.

October 15, 2024

Rio Grande's Green River Bridge -- Added a new page about the five bridges that Rio Grande has used to cross the Green River at Green River, Utah, from the first in 1883 through to today.

October 5, 2024

Weber-Echo Historic Photos -- Added an online album of 27 photos of UP's route in Weber and Echo canyon, taken by A. J. Russell.

September 26, 2024

OSL History -- Added two new pages, each with a brief history of the Oregon Short Line Railroad, Union Pacific's subsidiary in Idaho. One history was written in 1977 as a history of the OSL, and the other history was written in 1981, as a history of the Idaho Division. Added a new page with supplemental reference notes to the Oregon Short Line Railroad's ICC valuation.

September 18, 2024

Brick Making -- Added a new page about brick making in Utah, with a focus on those plants that were served by railroads from the 1890s. In addition to the main index page, there have been five additional pages added that are the result of extensive amount of information about each of the companies. Included is information about the refractories that produced bricks and other products suitable for high heat furnaces such as smelters, and iron and steel furnaces.

September 9, 2024

Flour Mills -- Rearranged and updated the information on the Flour Mills Industry page. The changes include removing the flour milling and grain section of the Ogden Industry page.

September 7, 2024

Wendover Bulk Transshipment -- Added a new section to the UtahRails Industries Locomotives page about the two locomotives used at the transloading site just east of Wendover.

KGHM Robinson -- Updated the Kennecott Nevada page to the KGHM Robinson copper mine now operating at the former Kennecott location west of Ely, Nevada.

Purity Biscuit -- Added a new page about the Purity Biscuit Company, and its location at 471 West Fifth South in Salt Lake City.

September 5, 2024

Coca-Cola -- Added a new page with brief notes about the bottling plants of Coca-Cola in Salt Lake City. The original Coca-Cola bottling plant was served by a rail spur and was located at 875 South West Temple street in Salt Lake City, from 1938 to 1998. Rail service was provided originally by Salt Lake & Utah until 1947, then by Bamberger from 1947 to 1958, then by D&RGW until the spur was removed in 1977, although actual rail service ended in the late 1960s. The plant moved to its current location in Draper in 1998.

GE Moser List -- Uploaded the 1523-page builder list of General Electric locomotives to Archive.org. This list is informally known as the "GE Moser List."

September 3, 2024

EMD Photos by Preston Cook -- Added a link on the Locomotive Notes Index Page to Preston Cook's collection of EMD photos at the Barriger Library.

September 1, 2024

Kennecott Locomotive Notes -- Added a new page with content removed from three other pages. This new page brings together miscellaneous notes about Kennecott's electric and diesel locomotives.

August 28, 2024

Bingham Copper Heights -- Added a new about the six houses in Copper Heights, at the Confluence of Bingham Canyon and Carr Fork. The houses were built in 1916-1917, and the last residents left in 1956 and early 1957. The web page includes a link to a photo album.

August 27, 2024

Bingham Side Canyons -- Added a new page about the side canyons, branches and gulches that were part of Bingham Canyon, including Carr Fork, Markham Gulch, and Freeman Gulch.

August 17, 2024

Bingham Post Offices -- Updated the Bingham Post Office page with numerous specific dates.

August 16, 2024

Bingham Hospitals -- Added a new page about the hospitals serving the communities of Bingham Canyon, Utah. This is in response to questions of hospitals that appear in numerous photos of Bingham Canyon.

August 12, 2024

Bingham Post Offices -- Added a new page about the post offices serving the communities of Bingham Canyon, Utah.

August 11, 2024

EPA Rules -- Rearranged three pages and added a new page about rules by the federal EPA covering locomotive sound after 1980, and locomotive emissions after 1998.

August 10, 2024

Bingham Cemeteries -- Added a new page about the cemeteries serving the communities of Bingham Canyon, Utah. This became a subject of research to answer a question about the small structure visible in photos on the hill side above Kennecott's Dry Fork shops. The structure was the Chandler family vault.

August 5, 2024

Bingham Metals -- Rearranged information on other pages and added a new page about the Bingham Metals company and its predecessor companies. Bingham Metals had been shipping ore from the Armstrong tunnel in Carr Fork since 1931. Also updated the pages for the Armstrong Tunnel, and for United States Smelting Refining Company.

July 31, 2024

Utah Railroad Map Project -- Added a new entry on the This and That page of random notes, covering my volunteer time in 2013 to 2015 indexing over 900 railroad maps for the Utah State Archives.

July 30, 2024

Grant Tower -- Updated and rearranged the page for the Grant Tower interlocking in downtown Salt Lake City. The interlocking and tower building, and associated track work changes were completed in 1950.

Jennings' Quarry Spur (also known as Potter's Quarry Spur) -- Updated the entry on the Rio Grande Utah Branchlines page, adding information about the history of the spur, which connected to the Utah mainline at or near Kyune.

Small Arms Plant -- Added a new page about the Small Arms Plant on Salt Lake City's west side. Completed in 1942, and still serving today as a source of rail traffic; tracks owned by Union Pacific and service provided by Utah Railway's SAP Local.

July 29, 2024

How Sandy Got Its Name -- Updated the page explaining how Sandy, Utah, got its name.

Southern Utah McKeen Car -- Updated the page about the unique McKeen motor car that briefly ran on Southern Utah Railroad between Price and Hiawatha. The update includes the car's current status.

July 28, 2024

Oregon Ponies -- Updated the Oregon Ponies web page to include brief remarks about the "Oregon Pony" locomotive itself, describing it at the time it was built in May 1862 by the Vulcan Foundry in San Francisco. This little engine was the first "detached locomotive" built on the West Coast (meaning the first engine that was not part of a self-propelled passenger car for the San Francisco street railway), and the first locomotive to operate in the Pacific Northwest.

Google Search: "This Page Was Last Updated..." -- The Google search bot has finally crawled UtahRails and shows two pages of minor updates.

July 22, 2024

Pacific Island and Pacific View -- Updated the current status of UP named lightweight sleepers Pacific Island and Pacific View. (Thanks to Jack Deasey for the information)

July 19, 2024

Pullman In Mexico -- Added a new page about the Pullman service in Mexico. This new page includes a small amount of new information, as well as information consolidated from other pages.

Lagoon Railroads -- Added new information to the Lagoon Resort page, to include information about the miniature railroads that operated within the park.

July 17, 2024

Mars Lights -- Added a new section to the UP Locomotive Features page describing UP's use of Mars signal lights, as well as some history of the Mars Signal Light Company.

July 9, 2024

East Mountain Tunnels -- Added a new section to the Bingham Railroad Tunnels page, describing the six tunnels that were under the East Mountain, the ridge between Bingham Canyon on the west, and Salt Lake Valley on the east.

July 5, 2024

Bald Face Nines -- Added a brief description of the eight Union Pacific 9000-class 4-12-2 steam locomotives without air pumps on their front ends, after 1934, giving them the nickname of "Bald Face Nines.".

June 25, 2024

Feedwater Heaters -- Added a new section to the Steam Locomotive Notes page, briefing discussing Union Pacific's use of feedwater heaters on its steam locomotives.

UPFE Union Pacific Fruit Express -- Added a new page about the Union Pacific Fruit Express (UPFE), extracted and updated from the general Union Pacific Freight Cars page.

June 24, 2024

UP E8 and E9 Units To Amtrak -- Updated the UP E8 and E9 page to include listings of UP E8s and E9s that were leased and/or sold to Amtrak.

June 23, 2024

Wooden Caboose Steel Underframes -- Added a new section to the UP Wooden Caboose Features page, to include information about pre-built steel underframes delivered by Bettendorf.

June 16, 2024

UP GP7s -- Updated the page about Union Pacific's GP7 locomotives, delivered by EMD in 1953 as UP 700-729. The first 10 of these units (UP 700-709) were built at EMD's Cleveland No. 3 plant. The remaining 20 (UP 710-729) were built at LaGrange.

June 15, 2024

MU Connections -- Updated the page for multiple unit connections on UP locomotives. More work is needed to document the variations of MU connections on the front of cab units.

June 7, 2024

North Ore Shoot -- Updated the page about Kennecott's underground project known as the North Ore Shoot, or NOS. The project is centered at the headframe located adjacent to the current location of the pit crusher and conveyor system to the Copperton mill, as well as the 6190 truck shop.

May 31, 2024

Dalton & Lark Tramways -- Added a new page about the two 24-inch gauge tramways that served the Dalton & Lark mines at Bingham, Utah. The first was built in 1882 to serve the Lead Mine, which was later bought out by the Dalton & Lark company. It was a gravity tramway that used horses and mules to return the empty cars back to the mines. The second tramway was built in 1902 as an interim solution to bringing ore down from the mines owned by the Dalton & Lark company, pending the completion of the Bingham (later Mascotte) tunnel being driven into the Dalton & Lark ground. This second tramway was also a gravity tram, but used a modern 10-ton electric locomotive to return the empty cars to the mine. This second tramway was no longer needed after the Mascotte tunnel reached the Dalton & Lark's underground incline tunnel in 1905, allowing all ore to be shipped underground from the mines, out to the tunnel opening at Lark. There was only very limited use of the tramway after that.

May 25, 2024

Jacob City Horse Tram -- Added a new page about the proposed (in 1877) horse tram in Dry Canyon, 10 miles southeast of Stockton, intended to serve the Hidden Treasure mine. The new page includes information about the Hidden Treasure mine, and a link to the pioneering Waterman smelter that was owned by the same people. The Hidden Treasure mine was never successful enough to pay for the horse tram. The mine was one of the earliest mines in Utah Territory paying rich returns until the mid 1880s, until it wasn't. The claim continued to be worked by low-production leasers for several years. In 1938 the mine was sold to the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining company, which opened the mine for the variety of ore to be used as flux to improve the mix of ore it was smelting from its other mines. Thanks to Matt Mihalo for sharing the initial newspaper clipping about the horse tram, which in-turn resulted in additional research to tell a more complete story.

May 22, 2024

Neptune and Kempton Mines -- Added a new page for two adjacent mines at the top of Galena Gulch, west of the Jordan and Galena claims in Bingham Canyon. The Neptune and Kempton mines were among the very earliest rich and successful mines in Bingham Canyon, with their start in the early 1870s, before the railroad arrived. At first they sued each other for trespass, claiming the other was illegally working beyond their claim boundary. Then after combining to become a single operation, their ore played out in the late 1870s and early 1880s, and any production was being done by low-production leasers. In the period of the 1890s and later, any reference to the two mines was to their former glory days in making Bingham "Old Reliable." The two mines, along with the Jordan and Telegraph mines, were the destination of the well-known horse tram that served Bingham mines from 1874 to 1900. They later became known as the Kempton Lode and after 1902, served as a pawn in Enos Wall's self-promoted battle with the much larger consolidated companies, Utah Copper and the United States Mining company, harassing them with numerous law suites claiming encroachment, apex rights and trespass across claim boundaries.

May 19, 2024

Former MP GP50s -- Added a new page that consolidates the information about the 30 former Missouri Pacific GP50s, previously covered on four separate pages. These four pages now have a link to this new single page.

Former MP C36-7s -- Added a new page that consolidates the information about the 60 former Missouri Pacific C36-7s, previously covered on four separate pages. These four pages now have a link to this new single page.

May 17, 2024

UP Last Four SD40-2s -- Rearranged and updated the page for UP's last four SD40-2s, delivered as UP 3805-3808 in November 1980. These four locomotives were a special test by EMD and UP for improvements to the standard SD40-2, in preparation for an order by UP for 120 SD40-2s, to be delivered as UP 3809-3928 in the first three quarters of 1981. Eighty of these were canceled in early 1981 and the remaining 40 were canceled in June 1981. The orders were canceled because of a downturn in traffic that also put hundreds of UP locomotives in storage from 1980 through 1984, including the 45 remaining DDA40X Centennials in the 6900 class.

SD40-2 Nose Lengths -- Updated the page about the various nose lengths on EMD's SD40-2s, including UP's locomotives.

UP Diesel Locomotives Stored -- Added a new page with information about diesel locomotives stored by Union Pacific in the 1972-1990 period, compiled in the early 1990s from reports in railfan publications.

May 16, 2024

Wool Industry -- Added a new page about the wool industry in Utah. At this time, the singular content is for the Merrion & Wilkins wool warehouse in Ogden, which was served by a Bamberger spur. The first season for the new warehouse in 1938, was also the first of the season west of Denver, with 1,750,000 pounds of newly sheared wool being offered. By July 1938 there were 3 million pounds of wool stored in the warehouse. In July 1940, a total of 3.5 million pounds of wool from 350 growers was sold. The largest percentage of the wool sold and shipped outbound from the warehouse, was by rail, starting with the Bamberger railroad, which interchanged at Ogden with Union Pacific, Denver & Rio Grande, and Southern Pacific.

May 14, 2024

Savage Tooele Railroad -- Updated the information for the Savage Tooele Railroad, which received federal STB approval in early April 2024 to refurbish the former Western Pacific Warner Branch between Burmester on the former WP mainline in Tooele County, and the Lakeside Business Park, which is being developed on the north side of the Deseret Peak Motorsports Park. Also added a link to the main Utah Railroads index page.

Enos A. Wall -- Added a new page to the Bingham section, detailing the life and activities of Enos A. Wall, one of the founders of Utah Copper in Bingham Canyon in 1903. Among many other mines in Bingham, and in Utah and Nevada, Wall continued to promote his Starless mine.

Starless Mine -- Added a new page to the Bingham section, covering the Starless mine and Enos Wall's activity in developing the mine. The Starless mine bordered the Utah Copper property immediately along Utah Copper's north side. The ore in the Starless was the same as in the Utah Copper property, but deeper and would have been more expensive to extract due to more cover ground and close proximity to the commercial parts of Bingham Canyon. There were four underground tunnels at four different levels, adding up to a total of 6000 feet, but all were part of the development work to determine the extent of the ore body. The mine never went into production due to projected high cost of operation.

May 12, 2024

Cuprum Walk-Up Hotel -- Added a new brief narrative about the Walk-Up Hotel at Cuprum, adjacent to Rio Grande Western's Cuprum yard in Bingham Canyon. Cuprum yard was completed in 1907, and the adjacent hotel/boarding house was in place by 1914. The hotel was sold at the same time as Cuprum yard, in 1926, and the building was removed between 1938 and 1940. Includes a link to photos of the hotel.

Cuprum Walk-Up Hotel Photos

April 30, 2024

Union Pacific Olympic Torch Relay Trains -- Added a direct link on the Union Pacific Index page, to the page about Union Pacific's support of the 1996 Summer Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics, including the Olympic Cauldron Car and two sets of two locomotives.

April 29, 2024

Ditch Lights -- Updated the Ditch Lights section of the UP Locomotive Features page. The additional information includes historical notes back to the initial proposal in 1978 to add ditch lights, and full background to the 1992 amendment to the Amtrak Authorization Act that mandated the installation of ditch lights, called auxiliary lights, to locomotives, starting in 1993 with a completion date of December 31, 1997. Also included are brief notes about the use of ditch lights in Canada after 1976.

April 25, 2024

Ogden Union Stock Yards Photos -- An online album of photos of Ogden Union Stock Yards, including a series of 305 photos obtained from the family of Kenneth Knowles in 1996.

April 23, 2024

Footboards and Uncoupling Levers -- Updated the section on the UP Locomotive Features page, discussing when Union Pacific removed the footboards on its locomotives beginning in 1974. Includes links to the FRA rule changes as published in the Federal Register.

April 22, 2024

Castle Gate Photos -- Added a new photo album for a group of photos of Castle Gate and Sunnyside in the late 1930s. These photos came from Linette Hutton and came from her maternal grandparents, Iver and Lura Iverson, who lived in Helper in late 1930s to the end of World War II.

April 10, 2024

End Of Steam On UP -- Added a new page with information about the end of steam in regular service on Union Pacific.

April 2, 2024

D&RGW Dome Observation 1250 -- Updated the information for the former D&RGW Observation-Dome car to update its present status at Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

March 31, 2024

New York Locomotive Works -- Added a new section to the Steam Locomotive Builders page, covering the New York Locomotive & Machine Company of Rome, New York, which built 700 steam locomotives between 1883 and 1893.

March 29, 2024

UP Steam Classes -- Updated the section about Union Pacific's steam locomotive classes and classifications (C-1 vs. C-57 for the company's 2-8-0 steam locomotives).

March 10, 2024

D&RGW Lark Branch -- Added a new Google map showing the D&RGW Lark Branch, built in 1903 as the Dalton & Lark Branch; partially changed in 1955 to serve the new Bingham-Lark tunnel.

March 7, 2024

Farmers Grain Cooperative -- Added a new section about the large Farmers Grain Cooperative grain storage silos in West Ogden. This was in relation to the demolition of the facility in March 2024. The original facility was completed in 1941, with additions in 1942, 1947 and 1949.

March 3, 2024

Utah History Encyclopedia -- Added links to the two articles Don Strack wrote about Railroads In Utah, and Utah's Canning Industry, for the Utah History Encyclopedia in 1994, published to celebrate the state's centennial in 1996.

February 24, 2024

Anaconda's Carr Fork Project -- Updated the section of the Anaconda In Utah page to include more detail about Anaconda's Carr Fork Project, its underground mine that had its center of operations at the top of Pine Canyon, east of Tooele. The mine opened in late 1979. Due to Anaconda's, and its parent ARCO's, financial problems, the Carr Fork Project was shut down just three years later. Kennecott bought all of Anaconda's property and rights in 1985, and the entire site in Pine Canyon was reclaimed by mid 1989.

February 23, 2024

Letterhead -- Added 50 new examples of letterhead to the existing album of 91 images, bringing the total to 141 examples of letterhead. All have been scanned from the letterhead collection of Don Strack.

February 20, 2024

State Road Map, 1932 -- Added a Utah State Road Map for 1932, which shows railroads at the time.

February 19, 2024

UtahRails Site Map -- Added an HTML site map of all pages at UtahRails. This is an auto-generated site map that changes as pages are added or removed.

February 15, 2024

Highland Boy Mine -- Added a new page about the Highland Boy mine, located at the top of the Carr Fork branch of Bingham Canyon in Utah. The Highland Boy was the basis of the Utah Consolidated Mining company, which later built the International smelter on the Tooele side of the Oquirrh range, and the 20,000 feet long aerial tramway between the mine and the smelter. A successor company built the Elton tunnel between the same two locations to replace the aerial tramway.

Stewart Mines -- Added a new page about the Stewart No. 1 and Stewart No. 2 mines, located in lower Muddy Gulch in the Carr Fork branch of Bingham Canyon, Utah. The Stewart mines were the basis of the formation of the Boston Consolidated Mining company in 1898.

Nast Tunnel -- Added a new page about the Nast tunnel in Muddy Gulch in the Carr Fork branch of Bingham Canyon, Utah. The Nast tunnel, and the Benton tunnel immediately above, formed the basis of the Bingham Metals company, which later moved its surface facilities down to the Armstrong tunnel in Carr Fork.

The above added pages included changes to the following three pages where brief comments had previously been included prior to additional research being completed.

February 14, 2024

A History of Ogden, 1940 -- Added a PDF of the 1940 history of Ogden, Utah, prepared by the Works Progress Administration and the Utah Historical Records Survey Project. The book contains 79 pages, with the first 48 pages covering the history of Ogden before the arrival of the railroad in 1869. As a service to future researchers, the book also includes excellent footnotes and a complete nine-page bibliography. (PDF; 79 pages; 8.8MB)

February 4, 2024

Eureka Hill Shay #1 Wreck -- Added four photos of the wreck of the former Eureka Hill Shay #1, in July 1915 while in service on the Nevada Shortline. Photos were shared by Deb Phillips.

(Read more about the four Eureka Hill Shay locomotives)

January 25, 2024

Views of Ogden, 1901 -- Added a new photo album of 32 images from a souvenir book. Includes a view of Union Depot, and a distant view of the original 1897 UP roundhouse.

January 24, 2024

Emery County Coal Mines -- Rearranged and updated information on other coal pages and made extensive additions to the information on the Emery County coal mine page. Added a new page for the Trail Mountain mine, with a link on the Emery County Mines page. The highest producing coal mines of Utah's Emery County became the source for Utah Power & Light's coal-fired power plants. Also updated the page for C. V. Spur coal-loading site to add the source for the Acco name.

(Updated from January 18, 2024)

January 14, 2024

Portland Rose -- Updated and rearranged the page for Union Pacific's Portland Rose passenger train, which ran from Portland to Omaha from 1930 until 1954, then from Portland to Kansas City from 1954 until Amtrak in 1971.

January 9, 2024

About UtahRails -- Updated the About page for UtahRails.

January 7, 2024

Wildcat Locomotives -- Updated the histories of the four locomotives used by Wildcat Midstream Partners (UTWX) at the oil transloading facility at Wildcat on Utah Railway.

January 5, 2024

Corporate Index -- Added links to the master list, in nine parts, of railroads incorporated in Utah. The main benefit of a list of railroads incorporated in Utah is that each entry shows the original organization date, the original organizers, and the original purpose and route of each company. Admittedly, obscure information, but a necessary part in understanding the history of railroads in Utah. This was one of the first group of web pages available from UtahRails.net, but links were not provided due to the obscure nature of the information.

January 1, 2024

Gas Turbines In California -- Added comments about UP using its large GTE 8500 three-unit gas turbines in California. Also added comments about the tender trucks on these locomotives not being motorized.

December 28, 2023

Utah Rock Asphalt -- Added a new page about the Utah Rock Asphalt Company, and its asphalt rock quarry six miles north of Sunnyside in eastern Utah. Crushed asphalt rock from many sources was used from the 1890s into the 1920s to pave streets all across the nation. A large deposit near Sunnyside began production in 1910 to serve this growing market. The Utah Rock Asphalt company was organized in 1928 to resume production, and built a 3-1/2 mile aerial tramway that remained in service from 1929 to 1947. The aerial tramway was used to move asphalt rock from the company's open-face quarry at the head of Water Canyon (reported as being the largest deposit in the nation), down to the mouth of Water Canyon where it met Whitmore Canyon, six miles north of Sunnyside. The asphalt rock was then trucked two miles to a crushing mill that was served by the far north end of D&RGW's Sunnyside Branch. Included are brief remarks description the variety of products used for early street paving in Salt Lake City.

December 20, 2023

10,000 Horsepower -- Added a section to the Union Pacific Diesel Story page, about Union Pacific's three-unit gas turbines being rated at 10,000 horsepower. This is in answer to a recent question received by email.

December 17, 2023

UTA Comet Cars -- Updated the Comet cars section of the UTA equipment page, to include the sale of 13 Comet cars in 2022 and their movement to Kansas in 2023.

December 16, 2023

Cement and Flour Mills -- With the recent end of rail service to Cereal Food Processors and Mountain Cement, both located in downtown Salt Lake City, I have updated the web pages for the Cement Industry in Utah, and the Flour Milling Industry in Utah.

Mountain Cement (as part of the Cement Industry In Utah)

Cereal Food Processors (as part of the Flour Milling Industry In Utah) (This was the former Peavey mill, and originally the Hustler mill)

Both of these sites were switched by Utah Transit Authority by special arrangement, after the completion of the Frontrunner South commuter line in 2012, with the Frontrunner mainline blocking access by Union Pacific, which had previously provided the service.

Cereal Food Processors mill (owned by Grain Craft after 2014) was closed in early 2018, so there was no need for switching of rail cars after that time. Updates for the CFP section of the flour milling page include recently researched history of the flour mill on the site, which was built in 1923-1924 originally for the Husler Milling & Elevator Company.

The Mountain Cement distribution facility two blocks to the south stopped receiving rail cars in late 2021. The TrackMobile that had been in use by Mountain Cement since about 2006, was sold in mid 2022 due to lack of use.

December 4, 2023

Scanned Drawings -- Rearranged the online folder where the scanned drawings and maps were held. Since its original availability in 2017, the number of images has been added to, bringing the total from the original 276 images, to the current 291 images. Among the newest additions are the following four maps.

December 2, 2023

D&RGW "Official Roster" -- A digital version of the 1923 issue of D&RGW's "Official Roster," produced by the railroad's auditing department to comply with rules of the federal ICC to account for all assets as part of the overall valuation of the railroad. The 162-page book includes a listing of all stations on the railroad, along with listings of all equipment and other facilities. (PDF; 162 pages; 49MB)

November 25, 2023

Wilbur Smith "Smelters In Utah, 1854 to Present [1978]" -- Added three new pages about smelters in Utah, compiled by Wilbur Smith. Includes a chronological list of smelters in Utah, and a reference list of his sources.

November 21, 2023

Bamberger Photos -- Added 106 photos of the Bamberger Railroad, taken by Gordon Cardall. The additional photos include numerous photos of the 400-series trailers, and the 500-series freight locomotives. These additional photos brings the total of Bamberger photos to 318.

Utah Light & Traction Photos -- Added 30 photos of Utah Light & Traction street cars, taken by Gordon Cardall in the 1939 to 1942 period.

November 7, 2023

Evans Tunnel -- As part of the overall project to identify large buildings in Utah's Bingham Canyon that can be seen in photographs, a recently acquired photograph of U. S. Mining's aerial tramway in Bingham Canyon included a caption identifying the Evans Tunnel. This reference forced a couple hours of online research to find out what the Evans Tunnel was, and where it was. This research has been captured in a new page that includes links to photos and a map.

The Evans Tunnel was a transportation and drainage tunnel that connected to the Telegraph mine, in Bear Gulch in the upper parts of Bingham Canyon, Utah. Completed in 1900, the tunnel allowed the U. S. Mining company to move ore from its Telegraph mine to ore bins that were served by the Copper Belt railroad. After 1902, the ore was moved by way of U. S. Mining company's aerial tramway, which had its angle transfer station immediately adjacent to the Telegraph mine ore bins.

The Evans Tunnel had its opening (at its north end) at the junction where Bear Gulch, at the top (south end) of Bingham Canyon, connected with Galena Gulch, where U. S. Mining's Jordan and Galena mines were. The Evans tunnel was announced in late 1900, about 18 months after the U. S. company was organized to take control of the Telegraph, Jordan, Niagara, and Galena mines.

(Updated from October 20, 2023, to create a separate page, and include additional information.)

October 17, 2023

Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) Demonstration Run on UTA, 1998 -- Added a news item about a demonstration run of Altamont Corridor Express (ACE) equipment on UP tracks in February 11, 1998, demonstrating UTA's planned Frontrunner commuter rail service. (Courtesy of McKay Ransom)

October 15, 2023

The Utah Copper Story, 50th Anniversary, 1954 -- Added a digital version of the booklet published by Kennecott in 1954. Includes several historical photos, along with history of the Bingham mine and the mills, smelter and refinery, as well as all the other Kennecott facilities in Utah to produce copper. (PDF; 46 pages, with center-spread and separate foldout; 29MB)

September 15, 2023

UPP 5548 "Lake Mead" -- Added a new entry in the listing of Union Pacific's Heritage Fleet, for the newest addition, UPP 5548 "Lake Mead," built in 1954 as UP "Alpine Meadows."

September 3, 2023

Armstrong Tunnel -- Updated and added additional information to the page about the Armstrong tunnel in Bingham Canyon, including its history as the Stewart No. 2 mine dating from the 1870s.

August 28, 2023

SP and Sprint -- Updated the article about Southern Pacific's creation of Sprint, the communications company that later became well known for its pioneering fiber optic technology.

July 27, 2023

D&RG and D&RGW Wood Cabooses -- Updated and expanded the page describing the wood cabooses of D&RG and D&RGW.

RGW Cabooses -- Added a new page about the cabooses of Rio Grande Western, 1888-1907.

July 20, 2023

Photos of UP in Utah, 1930s -- Rescanned 22 photos of LA&SL and OSL in Salt Lake City, OSL and UP in Ogden, OUR&D Ogden depot, and single photos of OSL in Pocatello, Idaho, and UP at North Platte and Grand Island, both in Nebraska. (Scanned from 3x5 negatives)

July 19, 2023

Ice and Cold Storage -- Added a new page about the rail-served ice and cold storage industry in Utah, including rearranging other pages, including the PFE page, to put the information about the industry on a single page. Several hours of online newspaper research has filled in many holes in the story.

July 10, 2023

1909 Souvenir of Bingham -- Added an album of images from an original paper copy of the super-rare original 1909 Souvenir of Bingham book, with 130 pages of "illustrations and descriptions of The Greatest Copper Tonnage Camp In The World." Some of the pages had multiple images, so I separated them as single images, bringing the total from 130 pages to 194 pages. A PDF of the book is also available. (PDF; 194 pages; 115MB)

July 4, 2023

Heber Equipment -- Updated the page for the equipment at the Heber Valley Railroad to include the repainted GP9 5926 that is now in its D&RGW-inspired paint scheme. Also added information about the former VIA FP9 6300.

June 28, 2023

Letterhead -- Added a new album of 91 images scanned from the letterhead collection of Don Strack.

June 23, 2023

Utah Merci Train 40 & 8 Car -- Added a new section about Utah's Merci Train 40 & 8 car. This car was one of 48 rail cars gifted to the citizens of the United States in 1947 by the citizens of France in appreciation of the help the United States provided helping France recover from World War II.

June 15, 2023

Banning Coal Loadout -- Rearranged and edited several Utah Coal pages to clarify coal properties owned by Coastal States Energy, and later by Canyon Fuel Company, and added a new page for the Banning coal loadout at mile post 5.5 on D&RGW's Sunnyside Branch, where the branch passes under U.S. Highway 6 at what is known on the highway as Sunnyside Junction. Completed in 1979 and operated by the Soldier Creek Coal Company until 2000.

(see also Coastal States Energy)

(see also Canyon Fuel Company)

June 12, 2023

UP Diesel Diagrams -- Added an album of 47 pages of folio diagrams of Union Pacific diesel and turbine locomotives for the years 1954-1959.

June 9, 2023

Barney's Canyon -- Added a new page about Kennecott's Barney's Canyon heap-leach gold mine, located about four miles north of Bingham Canyon. The mine was active from 1989 to 2001, with leach solution processing continuing for another five years. Reclamation began within a few years as the mine continued to expand, and continues today.

May 16, 2023

UP Numbered Trains -- Rearranged the Streamliner Timeline page and the Numbered Trains page for Union Pacific's early Streamliner passenger trains. The two pages now have links to eight new pages, each dedicated to one of UP's 1st through 8th Trains that entered service between 1934 for the 1st Train and 1938 for the 8th Train. These eight trains were all assigned to one of UP's famous Streamliner trains (City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco, City of Portland, and City of Denver).

UP Streamliner Train Consists -- Added a new album for Union Pacific drawings from Dick Harley, showing the consists of the railroad's "City" Streamliner passenger trains.

May 9, 2023

UP Wreck at Carp, July 1943 -- Added a new page about the Union Pacific wreck at Carp, Nevada, on July 13, 1943. The head-on collision destroyed UP E6A LA-4 by shearing off its cab. There were no serious injuries and no deaths.

May 6, 2023

Burning Coal on SP in Utah -- Added brief remarks describing the use of coal as fuel on the SP in Utah, during the control of SP by UP from 1904 to 1912, allowing the use of Wyoming coal on SP.

April 22, 2023

Rio Grande Zephyr, 1971-1983 -- Rearranged information from three pages to create a new section showing the timeline of the Rio Grande Zephyr, which operated between Denver and Salt Lake City from 1971 to 1983.

April 16, 2023

EMD's Cleveland Plant No. 3 -- Added a new page about EMD's Cleveland Plant No.3, where EMD built switchers and GP7s from 1948 through 1954. Includes a link to a production list of EMD locomotives built at Cleveland.

April 15, 2023

D&RGW/RGW Abandoned Grades -- Combined three previous Google maps into a single Google map showing the three abandoned grades in eastern Utah:

March 31, 2023

Tintic Southern Railroad -- Rearranged and consolidated information from three separate pages, with information about the failed Tintic Southern Railroad, actively planned from 2009 to 2015 to operate over portions of the former D&RGW Tintic Branch.

March 24, 2023

Union Pacific's Olympic Torch Cauldron Car -- Added a new page about Union Pacific's Olympic cauldron car. The car was built as part of Union Pacific's support of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. It was rebuilt and refurbished as part of UP's support of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

March 4, 2023

Uploaded seven new albums of Vic Oberhansley photos. The photos have been scanned from a wide variety of prints of all sizes, black & white and color negatives from 35mm to 616, and 35mm color slides. These photos are made available through the courtesy of Ralph Gochnour, a good friend of Vic's for many years, who has kept Vic's photos safe after Vic passed away in 1987.

Vic Oberhansley SP Photos -- Uploaded 80 photos of Southern Pacific subjects.

Vic Oberhansley WP Photos -- Uploaded 25 photos of Western Pacific subjects.

Vic Oberhansley UP Steam Photos -- Uploaded 67 photos of Union Pacific steam locomotives.

Vic Oberhansley UP Business Cars Photos -- Uploaded 138 photos of Union Pacific business cars.

Vic Oberhansley UP Caboose Photos -- Uploaded 38 photos of Union Pacific cabooses.

Vic Oberhansley UP Depots and Buildings -- Uploaded 69 photos of Union Pacific depots and buildings.

Vic Oberhansley UP Diesel Photos -- Uploaded 47 photos of Union Pacific diesel locomotives.

March 1, 2023

UP Areas, Districts, Regions and Service Units -- Added a new page with information about the background for Union Pacific's use of Districts, then Regions, then Service Units in the years between 1983 and today. Additional organizational changes in 1998 brought the railroad's use of Timetable Areas as a way to better manage operations and maintenance.

February 27, 2023

Vic Oberhansley UP Passenger Car Photos -- Uploaded 112 photos of Union Pacific passenger cars. The photos have been scanned from a wide variety of prints of all sizes, black & white and color negatives from 35mm to 616, and 35mm color slides. These photos are made available through the courtesy of Ralph Gochnour, a good friend of Vic's for many years, who has kept Vic's photos safe after Vic passed away in 1987.

February 25, 2023

Post Office Annex -- Added a new page for the Post Office Annex building, located immediately south of Union Pacific's Salt Lake City depot. The building was owned by Union Pacific and leased to the U. S. Postal Service until 1975. After that it was used for UP's offices, until it was demolished in 1999 to make way for the Gateway mall project.

January 31, 2023

Radios on UP Steam -- Added a new section to the UP Steam Roster Notes page, with brief notes about Union Pacific's use of radios on its steam locomotives. More research is needed...

January 16, 2023

Full chronologies for Union Pacific's motive power, from 1862 to 2001:

1862-1914 -- Pioneer Steam Era (Steam only)

1915-1933 -- Early Steam Era (Steam only)

1934-1982 -- Late Steam and Classic Era (Steam and Diesel)

1983-2001 -- Early Merger Era, Late Merger Era, and Modern Era (Diesel only)

January 6, 2023

Locomotives Leased By UP (1987-1991) -- Reformatted to make the page mobile friendly, with minor edits and updates; moved to a more useful folder location.

Locomotives Leased To Mexico (1987-1992) -- Reformatted to make the page mobile friendly, with minor edits and updates; moved to a more useful folder location.

January 4, 2023

Farrington Books -- Added a new page about the railroad books written by S. Kip Farrington, including links to PDFs of selected chapters.

December 29, 2022

Lakota Crossing -- Added a new page about the Lakota Crossing, four miles north of Provo, where the Rio Grande mainline (constructed in 1882) crossed the Union Pacific mainline (constructed in 1873). The crossing was made an automatic interlocking in 1931, and was removed in 1985 when Union Pacific began using traffic rights over the Rio Grande between Salt Lake City and Provo.

December 18, 2022

Rio Grande Western Cabooses -- Added some brief roster notes for the 45 Rio Grande Western cabooses known to be operating in 1902.

December 17, 2022

UP 4500 GTEL Illustrations -- Added a photo album of illustrations lifted from two different 4500 GTEL service manuals, showing gas turbine locomotive components including traction motors, traction generators, headlights and Gyralights, as well as general arrangements of the first two series of 4500 gas turbine electric locomotives (GTEL) on Union Pacific.

November 23, 2022

Union Pacific Passenger Train Consists -- Added three PDF files for UP passenger train consists: February 1947; September 1947; and January 1954.

November 21, 2022

UP Corporate Histories -- Added a new section to the main Union Pacific index page with links to PDF corporate histories for each of UP and its three main subsidiaries (OSL, OWRR&N, LA&SL) as of 1914, 1916 and 1919. These corporate histories were completed in response to the ICC Valuation of all U.S. railroads.

November 13, 2022

Steve Swanson Bingham Photos -- Added 49 photos to the Steve Swanson Bingham photo album, including photos of Bingham & Garfield and Utah Copper steam engines.

November 8, 2022

UP 4-6-2 Pacifics -- Updated the information for the five OSL 4-6-2 Pacifics, numbered as OSL 3134-3138. These were the lightest of UP's "Heavy Pacific" engines, and the only 4-6-2s with 69-inch drivers. Also updated the links to include links to a general narrative for UP's 4-6-2 Pacifics, and to UP's Two-Tone Gray Pacifics (14 of 209).

October 30, 2022

UP Commemorative Plaques -- Added a new section to the UP Locomotive Features page, describing the special UP shield plaques, and special rectangular plaques applied to numerous Union Pacific locomotives in the 1990s.

October 25, 2022

Grant Tower -- Updated the page for the Grant Tower Interlocking in downtown Salt Lake City. The update includes brief notes about daylighting City Creek, the city's Folsom Trail, and the proposed railfan viewing site. Also includes links to photos and maps of the Grant Tower area.

October 4, 2022

Wildcat Midstream Partners -- Added known histories for the three locomotives (two GP8s and an SD50) used by Wildcat Midstream Partners at Wildcat near Price, Utah. Wildcat is a coal loadout, and an oil transloading facility. The locomotives are being used on the oil side of Wildcat.

September 18, 2022

UP Calendar Colorphotos -- Added 43 additional images from Union Pacific's iconic annual calendars, bringing the total in the online album up to 181 images covering the years of 1940 (one image), 1943, 1944, and 1947 to 1989. The collection includes all railroad-themed photos, plus various passenger car interior views, and a few city scenes. Included are images of the single-page calendars for 1937, 1938, and 1939, and a low quality image of the 1942 calendar. The calendar for 1945 did not have any railroad-theme photos, and the calendar for 1946 was all-artwork, with a few distant stylized trains visible.

(Read more about Union Pacific's calendars)

September 13, 2022

Wall Maps -- Added a new photo album with 22 scanned images of railroad wall maps. The railroads include AT&SF (1979), BN (1971), BN (1986), C&NW (1985; 2 sides), Conrail (1986), CSX (no date), N&W (1977; 2 sides), Norfolk Southern (1982), Norfolk Southern (1983), UPRR (1959; 2 sides), UPRR (1965), UPRR (1976), UPRR (1978), UPRR (1982 first merger map), UPRR (1983), UPRR (1984; 2 sides), UPRR (1997; 2 sides).

September 12, 2022

UP Centennial, Report To Shippers -- Added UP's Centennial Report to Shippers, illustrating the services, motive power, and freight cars available to the railroad's shippers during the railroad's Centennial year of 1969. (Download a PDF of this book)

M-K & The Railroads -- Added Morrison-Knudsen's book, "M-K & The Railroads" from 1972, illustrating the services M-K had offered to the railroads over the years, up to 1972. (Download a PDF of this book)

Milwaukee Road...a brief history -- Added a 1968 book by Milwaukee Road about its history up to 1968. (Download a PDF of this book)

This Is Southern Pacific, 1967 -- Added a special issue of Southern Pacific Bulletin for December 1967, about SP's history up to 1968. (Download a PDF of this book)

September 10, 2022

Utah Eastern Railroad -- Added two PDFs of source material for the Utah Eastern Railroad (1879-1887), which ran from Coalville south to Park City, Utah.

Summit County Coal -- Added two PDFs of source material describing the coal mines of Summit County, Utah.

September 9, 2022

Sugar -- Rearranged and added more information to the page for the Sugar Beet industry in Utah, including five PDFs of source material.

Canning -- Rearranged and added more information to the page for the Canning industry in Utah, including a PDF of source material about the canning industry in Weber County, Utah.

August 31, 2022

Baldwin Diesel Electric Locomotive Specification -- Added a PDF of a 1949 Baldwin bulletin giving specifications of their 1500- and 2000-horsepower road-switcher diesel-electric locomotives. (PDF; 10 pages; 8MB)

GE 44-Ton Specification -- Added a PDF of a May 1947 GE specification for their 44-ton switching locomotive.

Power, The horsepower requirements of Diesel Locomotives -- Added a PDF of a booklet published by EMD in the late 1940s, describing the horsepower requirements of Diesel locomotives. (PDF; 14 pages; 5.4MB)

Pull, The tractive effort of Diesel Locomotives -- Added a PDF of a booklet published by EMD in the late 1940s, describing tractive effort of Diesel locomotives. (PDF; 12 pages; 5MB)

Wheels and Axles of Diesel Locomotives -- Added a PDF of a booklet published by EMD in the late 1940s, describing wheels and axles used for Diesel locomotives. (PDF; 15 pages; 4.9MB)

August 27, 2022

Dieselization of the LA&SL, 1947 -- Added a PDF document of a March 1947 95-page study by EMD, for the dieselization of UP's LA&SL subsidiary. Includes data and figures for partial dieselization and full dieselization, as well as a narrative of the then-current steam operations. (PDF; 95 pages; 34.7MB)

August 25, 2022

Miscellaneous Diesel Locomotive Illustrations -- Added a new online album of miscellaneous diesel locomotive illustrations (general arrangement, cut-away, details) copied from diesel locomotive operator manuals.

August 16, 2022

Salt Lake Garfield & Western Locomotives and Equipment -- Separated the SLG&W diesel locomotive roster from the road's steam, electric and other equipment roster. The combined rosters were becoming unwieldy for mobile users, which make up about half of the visitors to UtahRails.

SLG&W steam, electric and other equipment

SLG&W diesel locomotives

August 11, 2022

Bingham & Garfield 0-8-8-0's -- Added a new page about the seven Bingham & Garfield 0-8-8-0's. These seven locomotives were very similar, if not identical, to 34 other 0-8-8-0's built by Alco between 1907 and 1922, for seven other railroads.

August 3, 2022

D&RGW Little Cottonwood Branch -- Added a map of D&RGW's Little Cottonwood Branch, from Midvale east to the Sandy Sand Pit. (Read more about D&RGW's Little Cottonwood Branch)

August 1, 2022

SLG&W Diesels -- Updated the diesel locomotive roster for the Salt Lake Garfield & Western to include the two recent additions by Patriot Rail.

July 27, 2022

Union Pacific List of Industries, 1971 -- Added an index page, and 16 PDF files of UP's List of Industries, dated January 1, 1971. (Presented through the courtesy of Dan Holbrook and Bob Trop)

July 10, 2022

Union Pacific Steam Tests -- Added 22 PDF documents covering various tests by Union Pacific on some of its steam locomotives in 1940 and 1947-1949. These test reports and other items come from Richard Flebbe, whose father was Paul Flebbe, UP's Engineer of Road Tests during this period. Included are tests comparing single stacks, double stacks, and various nozzle and front end designs, along with comparing steam injectors. Also included are a series of horsepower curves and tonnage ratings charts across UP's fleet of steam locomotives. Along with the test reports and other items from the Paul Flebbe papers, this series of documents includes Richard Flebbe's biographical notes, "150 Years With Uncle Pete," documenting his grandfather's career from 1898 to 1947, his father's career from 1929 to 1974, and his own career with Union Pacific, as well his own separate history of UP's Omaha shop where he was employed from 1973 to its closing in 1989.

July 6, 2022

UP List of Stations, Northwestern District, 1953 -- Added a new PDF of Union Pacific Form G-23, List of Stations, Northwestern District, 1953. A small 14-page document dated October 1, 1953, showing all the stations on UP's Idaho and Oregon Division mainlines and branches. Provided courtesy of Ralph Gochnour. (PDF; 8 pages; 4.4MB)

This and other similar documents replaced the extensive Form 70, which by 1951 had become difficult to manage by UP's accounting department and other departments within the railroad. A list of stations was always part of the Form 70s, along with lists of officials, equipment, and facilities. (Read more about UP's Form 70s)

June 30, 2022

Tooele Army Depot Rail Center -- Updated the page about the U. S. Army's Tooele Army Depot locomotive shop located at Hill Air Force Base. Opened in 1942, the facility was formally closed in July 2020 when the rebuild of the last three locomotives was completed. The buildings were demolished in October 2021.

June 25, 2022

Newspapers as Sources -- Added a new page with narrative notes and links for using online newspapers as source material for research.

June 12, 2022

Mabey Crossing -- Added a new sidebar narrative of a tragic train-automobile accident at Mabey siding on the D&RGW mainline near Clearfield, Utah. Includes a link to an album with photos of the crossing, newspaper clippings, and annotated aerial photos.

June 9, 2022

D&RGW Provo Canyon Branch -- Added a new page about the D&RGW Provo Canyon Branch, from Provo to Heber by way of Provo Canyon. Rearranged information from other pages, and added new research.

D&RGW Bingham Branch -- Added a new page about the D&RGW Bingham Branch, from Midvale to Bingham Canyon. Rearranged information from other pages, and added new research.

May 29, 2022

D&RGW Orem Branch -- Added a new page of D&RGW's Orem Branch. D&RGW purchased the branch in 1946 after the Salt Lake & Utah interurban line shut down. Includes a link to a Google map.

May 26, 2022

UP Donation To RRHMA -- Added a new section to the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet Notes, describing the equipment in the April 2022 donation to the Railroading Heritage of Midwest America.

Buffalo & Susquehanna 2-8-0s -- Updated the web page about the canceled order for 10 Buffalo & Susquehanna 2-8-0s, including the three that came to Utah. One came to Southern Utah, and later became Utah Railway #4. Two came to Tooele Valley Railway as their numbers 11 and 12. (Includes links to more information.)

May 14, 2022

UP's 1962 Proposed 5000 HP Locomotive -- Added a new section to the Union Pacific Diesel Miscellaneous Notes page, about UP's 1962 proposed 5000 horsepower locomotive. This comes from a post to Trainorders.com in February 2014.

For those with a subscription to Trainorders, here is the link:

UP's 1962 Proposed 5000 HP Locomotive, at Trainorders.com

April 29, 2022

Walschaerts vs. Walschaert -- Added a new section to the Union Pacific steam locomotive page, discussing what to call the valve gear used on so many of UP's steam locomotives.

Whiting Test -- Added a new section to the Union Pacific steam locomotive page, discussing the use of the whiting test for detection of cracks on steam locomotive drive rods.

April 27, 2022

Promontory Locomotives -- Added a new page about the locomotives used at the Golden Spike National Historical Park at Promontory from 1969 to today. This research project began with an attempt to identify the locomotives in several photos of Promontory locomotives taken by Vic Oberhansley. Research found that four former Virginia & Truckee locomotives were used from 1969 to 1978. The two replica locomotives in place today arrived in 1979. Extensive online newspaper research found much information about the locomotives as they arrived and departed from Promontory. Included is a list of the cities that were visited from March to October 1969 by Union Pacific's Expo train. Comments by Kyle Wyatt helped in filling in more of the story.

April 19, 2022

Utah Smelting Company -- Added a new page about the Utah Smelting Company at Hot Springs, north of Ogden. Includes a link to several newspaper clippings that document the brief history of this very small smelter, 1906 to 1914.

April 13, 2022

UP Steam Smoke Lifters -- Rearranged the page about UP's use of smoke lifters on its 4-8-4 Northerns, 4-6-6-4 Challengers, and the single 4-8-8-4 Big Boy.

March 26, 2022

UP Steam Locomotive Diagrams -- Added two photo albums of Union Pacific steam locomotive diagrams. One for 1925, and another for 1936. The later book for 1936 includes the FEF-1 4-8-4s and the earliest Challengers. Both books are presented through the courtesy of Richard Flebbe, whose father was UP's Research and Mechanical Engineer at the time of his retirement in 1974 after 44 years of service.

UP Steam Locomotive Diagrams, 1925

UP Steam Locomotive Diagrams, 1936

March 19, 2022

D&RGW FS and FT Locomotives -- Added a new page about D&RGW's FS and FT locomotives. An EMD Service Bulletin dated July 15, 1947, designated FT locomotives delivered in four-unit A-B-B-A sets with couplers between each of the cab units and the booster units as FS locomotives. It retained the FT designation for four-unit A-B-B-A sets with drawbars between each cab and booster unit, and couplers between the two booster units.

D&RGW's first eight road locomotives (D&RGW 540-547; 32 units in eight A-B-B-A sets), delivered in 1942 and 1943, had couplers between all units and EMD used the FS destination for these these 32 units.

The later four FT road locomotives (D&RGW 548-551; 16 units in four A-B-B-A sets) delivered in 1944 had drawbars between the cab and booster units, and couplers between the booster units.

Updated roster listings... D&RGW FS 540A

March 11, 2022

Thornton Waite Articles -- Added a new index page for articles by Thornton Waite. These articles come from Thornton himself and are presented here on UtahRails with his permission. Included are articles about UP branchlines in Idaho, about UP's Butte Special passenger train, and a fascinating article about shipping eggs by rail.

February 27, 2022

Vic Oberhansley D&RGW Photos -- Added 162 D&RGW photos by Vic Oberhansley, including 87 photos of D&RGW depots and other subjects, and 75 photos of D&RGW passenger cars. These photos are made available through the courtesy of Ralph Gochnour, a good friend of Vic's for many years, and who has kept Vic's photos safe after Vic passed away in 1987.

Vic Oberhansley D&RGW Photos -- 87 photos of D&RGW subjects, including photos of D&RGW depots.

Vic Oberhansley D&RGW Passenger Car Photos -- 75 photos of D&RGW passenger cars.

February 27, 2022

RGZ Detour April 1983 -- Added a new photo album of the Rio Grande Zephyr detour on April 15, 1983, following the Thistle slide. The detour took D&RGW's Rio Grande Zephyr from Salt Lake City to Ogden on D&RGW tracks, then on Union Pacific from Ogden east across Wyoming to Cheyenne, and south to Denver.

This was the last run of the Rio Grande Zephyr in Utah. D&RGW and Amtrak had already agreed that on April 25, 1983, Amtrak's San Francisco Zephyr would be renamed as the California Zephyr, and begin running over D&RGW tracks across Colorado. The Thistle slide moved the changeover forward by 10 days and Amtrak began running its California Zephyr by way of a detour using UP's tracks across Wyoming. The operation remained in place until October 1983 when D&RGW completed a tunnel bypassing the Thistle slide and Amtrak's California Zephyr began using D&RGW tracks from Denver to Salt Lake City.

February 14, 2022

UP Passenger Cars -- Uploaded 991 photos of Union Pacific lightweight passenger cars, scanned from UPRR company photos previously in the collection of George Cockle prior to his death in 2019. Included are photos of UP lightweight passenger cars completed at the car builders, and in various stages of construction of the car exteriors and car interiors. The types covered include a wide variety of lightweight passenger cars built for Union Pacific. These additional 991 photos have been added to the existing 171 photos already in this online photo album.

January 20, 2022

EMD Model Designations -- Added a 4-page PDF showing EMD model designations, taken from EMD publications.

January 18, 2022

Bingham-New Haven -- Added a new page about the Bingham-New Haven mine at the head of the Carr Fork branch of Bingham Canyon in Utah. The mine was above and up-canyon a short distance from Utah Consolidated's Highland Boy mine, and the small village of Highland Boy. The company was organized in 1902; began shipping ore in 1904; added an aerial tramway in 1905; moved its operations to a lower tunnel in 1907; added a mill at its upper tunnel in 1909; shut down its own aerial tramway and began using the Utah Consolidated aerial tramway in 1912; then was acquired by the Utah Metal & Tunnel company in 1915 as part of a trespass and encroachment settlement concerning apex rights.

This research was completed as part of an overall effort to identify notable and obvious structures and buildings visible in photographs; in this case, its aerial tram and its early ore bins. The upper terminal of the Bingham-New Haven aerial tramway is visible in many early photos of Highland Boy, as well as the towers and cables of its aerial tramway. This is true at least until the change in 1912 when its operations were moved to allow access to the Utah Consolidated tramway. After the change, identifying separate Bingham-New Haven structures becomes almost impossible. The access to the Utah Consolidated tramway was by way of interconnecting underground tunnels, so the only surface structures were offices and support buildings for the company's managers and employees. The Bingham-New Haven structures at the very top of Carr Fork are easily confused with similar structures in the Muddy Fork (or Gulch) area, just one ridge away to the east, and home of the much larger Boston Consolidated company. By the 1930s the area surrounding the upper tunnel had been cleared of buildings, and very soon surface rights were sold to Utah Copper. By the 1940s, the area was buried as part of Utah Copper's N-Level waste rock dump.

January 2, 2022

Truck Shops at Bingham -- Added a new page about the truck shops at Bingham, including the Yosemite (1964-1986), Bingham (1986-2013) and Copperfield (2006-current) shops.

(What's New entries for 2000 to 2021 have been archived.)

October 30, 2000

The UtahRails.net web site first became available.

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