Throwback Thursday 16 Union Pacific C630 2905 in July 1971

UP 2905 leads an unlikely consist on a sunny day in July 1971 (location unknown). Bob Gottier photo, author's collection.

Today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back 44 years to July 1971. We’re trackside on the UP, in the middle of the road’s “bigger is better” motive power era. We observe an unwieldy consist of UP 2905-632-43 (C630, U25B, U50B), moving about a yard. Though there is no location given on this slide, we can still imagine what it must have been like to be trackside and watch this consist go by – what a jaw-dropper this must have been!  

 

Throughout the 1960’s (and earlier) Union Pacific experimented in its’ quest for the best motive power with several locomotive models unique to the road (or that saw limited application elsewhere) such as the DD35A, U50C, Alco C-855, and ultimately the DDA40X’s (“Centennials”). In this search for superior motive power, the road tested products from each of the three major builders (EMD, GE, and ALCo), in a head-to-head evaluation. Knowing that large-scale replacement of first-generation motive power was not far off, this would be a critical step in wisely selecting future locomotives – not only important (and expensive) assets from an accounting perspective, but crucial to ensuring the high quality of service the road is known for. Ten ALCo C630’s were purchased in October 1966, UP 2900-2909. These would ultimately be the last ALCo’s purchased by the road, and evidently were not held in high regard by mechanical forces, departing the active roster in November 1973 after nine years of service. A sale to DMIR February 1974 sent the 2905 northward, and even further so after a resale to Canadian Ore hauler Cartier in April 1974. Extant until at least 1986, the unit’s demise is likely lost to history. The trailing unit, UP 43, represents the most apparent example of the “bigger is better” mentality - inspired by Motive Power and Machinery director David S. Neuhart - in this image. Built using the trucks and span bolsters from traded-in General Electric jet turbine power locomotives (another uniquely UP design) the unit was effectively two U25B’s on one very large frame. Built in August 1964 the unit survived just ten years, retired in January 1974 and traded to GE. By this time, the usefulness of medium-horsepower six-axle locomotives was becoming clear, as well as the virtues of an easy-to-maintain locomotive. Comparatively high maintenance, many of the distinct double-diesels were soon vanquished from UP’s roster; the last, the DDA40X’s, surviving until 1983. Perhaps the most interesting unit, in my opinion anyhow, is UP 632, the middle unit in the consist. Build by GE in May 1962, it is in fact the oldest unit of the group. Though UP had a penchant for purchasing used demonstrator locomotives from the various builders, this was indeed a production-built hi-nose U25B, the only ones so constructed except for the demo units. One of 16 U25B’s on the roster, the 632 was actually somewhat more unique than the others: in April 1969, the locomotive was rebuilt with a 12-cylinder engine and new alternator, and used as a testbed for the upcoming U50C’s. Eventually repowered with a 16-cylinder engine, the locomotive was wrecked and retired in 1972. A 1974 sale to Rock Island took the unit to Silvis, IL, where it sat while being used as a parts donor to another wrecked U25B. In 1978 the remains were rebuilt into a slug and numbered to Rock Island 283. Following the demise of the Rock in 1981, the slug was sold to Chrome Locomotive in that year and presumably scrapped.

 

In addition to the locomotives, there is also plenty other to see in this photo, including the yard speaker (remember those?), the old Ford pickup, the UP aircraft wing car in the background, and some other high/wide loads. I think it’s pretty safe to assume the photographer had a pretty good day trackside!

 

‘Til next time,

Peter.

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Throwback Thursday 2 DRGW 3071 at Minturn CO July 1968

DRGW GP40 #3071 pauses at Minturn, CO in July 1968. John W. Maxwell photo, author's collection.

One hobby of mine is collecting and trading 35mm photographic slides of trains and railroad equipment. Last year, I acquired a small part of the photographic collection of John W. Maxwell, a photographer well-known among the narrow gauge community in the western United States. From the information I could gather, John was a mechanical engineer who was employed by Union Pacific in Colorado. I believe he lived in Denver, although that is only a guess based upon where the bulk of the photos were taken. John was popular among narrow gauge enthusiasts for his extensive photography of narrow gauge equipment and for making highly accurate scale drawings of narrow gauge rolling stock and equipment. John took photos for over 60 years, and from what I can find on the internet, the location of the bulk of his photographic and drawings collection remains a mystery. But instead of dwelling on where the collection went, let’s enjoy the view he captured in the photo above.

We’re at Minturn, Colorado in July 1968 – the sanding tower in the photo easily recognizable to any fan of The Mainline Through the Rockies. In this view we find one-and-a-half year old GP40 #3071 leading an eastbound that has stopped at the yard.  Minturn is located on the west side of the infamous Tennessee Pass, and is a town long associated – and closely tied to – the railroad. It was here that nearly all eastbound trains stopped and had helpers added to the train in order to overcome the 3% grades further up the pass. Though the train is eastbound, the tracks here run almost north-south allowing for good lighting of eastbounds almost all day long; it appears to be perhaps late morning at this click of the shutter. By this point in time, the 26 SD45’s are all on the property, but the railroad is still largely dominated by turbocharged four-axle locomotives, as evidenced by the consist of this train as well as the power in the distance. It would be another six years before the tunnel motors synonymous with the DRGW in its’ later years would show up, and we’re still not quite into EMD’s Dash-2 era yet

. We can safely surmise that the three GP30’s and a unit hidden by the shed are a helper set that perhaps will cut in partway back in this train, or another eastbound later in the day. Between the two lashups are no less than four (!) GP30’s along with an equal number of GP40’s or GP35’s. What a sound it must have been to hear this train leave town!

The lead unit, DRGW 3071 would go onto have a long and interesting history (most information from Don Strack’s Utah Rails site). It was the third of twelve GP40’s delivered to the Rio Grande in early 1967, and one of many high-horsepower four axle units that the railroad owned. The unit was converted into a trailing-only unit (“B-unit”) in 1972 with the removal of the radio, cab seats and other lead-required equipment; 24 other GP40’s and a number of GP30’s and GP35’s were similarly modified in an effort to reduce operating costs. The engine remained in this condition for many years and into the Southern Pacific era, when it was returned to a lead-capable unit. Eight years after the Rio Grande – Southern Pacific merger in 1988, the engine became part of the massive Union Pacific system in 1996. Under UP ownership, the engine left home rails and travelled far from its’ Tennessee Pass rails in the photo above. Photos on the internet reveal it travelled at least as far as Houston, TX and North Little Rock, AR. Ownership by UP lasted only five years, and in May 2001 the engine was retired after 34 years of service. A sale the next year to National Railway Equipment the following year took the engine to Silvis, IL, where the unit became a donor for one of the NRE’s many rebuild programs. Eventually, this unit was rebuilt by NRE, emerging as BNSF 2013 in late 2006 or early 2007. No longer a GP40, the locomotive is now mechanically a GP38-2, including a 16-645E non-turbocharged prime mover, oil-bath air filter box, new electrical gear, and just two radiator fans (the middle one was removed in the rebuild). A testament to EMD design, the engine should be around for many more years to come, having outlived its’ original owner and even Tennessee Pass itself.

 I am grateful to John Maxwell for taking the time and effort to record this scene on film – in future posts I will share more of the slides acquired from his collection.

‘Til next time,

Cheers,

Peter.

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