For Trains editors, the story of 2019 is — and has to be — the return of a Big Boy. Yes, we mean Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 — a speedy 700-tons of steel and steam when fully fueled and ready to go. Despite being out of service since the time Dwight Eisenhower was President, […]
Railroad: Union Pacific
UP sues Metra over commuter operations
CHICAGO — Union Pacific’s desire to get out of the business of operating Metra commuter trains has landed in federal court. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that UP filed suit earlier this week. The exact nature of the dispute is unknown, since the filing is sealed at UP’s request, and neither side provided details in response […]
Man arrested after trying to steal Union Pacific train in Washington NEWSWIRE
SPOKANE, Wash. — A 39-year-old man was arrested in Spokane Valley this week after allegedly boarding a Union Pacific locomotive, assaulting the engineer and apparently trying to take control of the train. According to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a Home Depot on Wednesday night after receiving a report of a disorderly […]
Crowd estimates for Big Boy 4014: 1.1 million plus NEWSWIRE
UP 4014 on display in West Chicago in July. Trains: Jim Wrinn OMAHA, Neb. — How many people saw Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 run in 2019? That is a question whose answer we’ll never know with full certainty, but estimates are coming in. UP says it counted 115,000 visitors who went through its […]
Union Pacific completes PTC implementation NEWSWIRE
An eastbound Union Pacific auto rack train passes through Lombard, Ill., on Nov. 16, 2019. UP announced it has completed positive train control implementation. TRAINS: David Lassen OMAHA — Union Pacific says it has completed positive train control implementation by activating the final segment of track requiring the safety system. More than 17,000 miles of […]
UP Minnesota branch loses major customer NEWSWIRE
UP’s local arrives at the old M&StL depot in New Prague on Sept. 4, 2012. Steve Glischinski NEW PRAGUE, Minn. – Employees at Miller Milling in New Prague got coal in their Christmas stocking this month when the company announced it was shutting down its mill in New Prague served by Union Pacific. The flour […]
UP reorganizes marketing and sales structure NEWSWIRE
OMAHA — Union Pacific will reorganize its marketing and sales structure, consolidating four business groups into three. Eliminated will be the energy group, which currently handles coal, liquefied petroleum gas, petroleum, petroleum coke, and sand. Coal and petroleum coke will move into the Bulk group — formerly agricultural products — while the other commodities will […]
Metra, Union Pacific in talks that could change operating agreement NEWSWIRE
A Metra UP Northwest train arrives in Harvard, Ill., on Nov. 23, 2018. Metra and Union Pacific are in talks that could substantially change the nature of UP’s operating agreement with the commuter railroad. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Union Pacific Railroad and Metra are in discussions that could give Metra some control of operations […]
State legislators urge UP to drop suit against Palestine, Texas NEWSWIRE
Workers repair a boxcar at a Missouri Pacific car shop in Palestine, Texas, in July 1963. The shop, operated by Union Pacific since its merger with the MoPac, is at the center of a lawsuit to end the railroad’s agreement to guarantee jobs in Palestine. Steve Patterson PALESTINE, Texas — Two state legislators have issued […]
UP sues to end employment provision in Texas town
PALESTINE, Texas — Union Pacific has filed suit to overturn a contract dating to 1872 that guarantees a certain number of jobs in Palestine, an east Texas community of 18,136 located 110 miles southwest of Dallas. The Palestine Herald-Press reports the suit, filed on Nov. 27, contends the contract should have been invalidated by a […]
Executives insist Precision Scheduled Railroading is about growth, not shrinking the railroad industry NEWSWIRE
E. Hunter Harrison Canadian Pacific NEW YORK CITY — CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific executives insisted last week that Precision Scheduled Railroading is a formula for growth, not a way for the industry to cut its way to prosperity. The three railroads have stored thousands of locomotives and freight cars, idled yards, and […]
Tennessee Pass line would be used for grain shipments NEWSWIRE
EADS, Colo. — The company interested in buying Union Pacific’s dormant Tennessee Pass line through the Colorado Rockies would do so to provide a more direct route for grain shipments from eastern Colorado and Kansas, according to the company’s lawyer. Colorado Pacific Railroad, which bought the former Missouri Pacific Towner Line in eastern Colorado, notified […]
