News photo: Big Boy begins 2021 tour

Steam locomotive pulling mix of passenger and frieght cars

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The Big Boy has begun this year’s Big Trip. Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 left its Cheyenne headquarters today, heading east to Sidney, Neb., on the first leg of a month-long, 10-state journey that will take it to New Orleans and back. Union Pacific offers both a detailed schedule and live […]

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News photos: Union Pacific reopens route after Colorado mudslides (second update)

Hi-Rail truck on tracks surrounded by mudslide

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — Union Pacific has posted photos to its social media accounts, including Facebook, showing its work to dig out from mudslides last week that closed its route through Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon. Clearing of debris and rebuilding track was completed early this morning, with the first freight train passing through the slide area […]

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Union Pacific Challengers as they appeared in service

Challenger locomotive hauling a freight train on the plains.

Union Pacific Challengers in service were one of the great sights of American railroading in the 1940s and 1950s, when they were near the pinnacle of super-powered steam. Please enjoy this digitized 8mm video originally take by Dick Wallin in 1959 east of Cheyenne, Wyo. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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Union Pacific Challengers as they appeared in service

Challenger locomotive hauling a freight train on the plains.

Union Pacific Challengers in service were one of the great sights of American railroading in the 1940s and 1950s, when they were near the pinnacle of super-powered steam. Please enjoy this digitized 8mm video originally take by Dick Wallin in 1959 east of Cheyenne, Wyo. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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‘California Zephyr’ route closed by Colorado mudslides

Man unloads luggage from Superliner car

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — Massive mudslides have washed out Union Pacific’s former Denver & Rio Grande Western route through Glenwood Canyon, east of Glenwood Springs, while also blocking part of adjacent Interstate 70. The slides not only have disrupted Amtrak’s California Zephyrs, which normally pass in the area between crew change points in Denver and […]

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Western Pacific Railroad: A railroader’s history

Streamlined orange and black diesel locomotive meeting passenger train with traits of the Western Pacific Railroad

Western Pacific Railroad history The Western Pacific Railroad almost “had it all.” It ran passenger and freight trains, in mountain and desert scenery, behind vintage steam engines that survived World War II and hauled excursions, and then colorful diesels, from early green-and-yellow FTs through orange-and-silver Fs and Geeps to dark-green second-generation EMDs and GEs. It […]

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Cumbres & Toltec restores full-route train ride option as of July 31

Cumbres_Toltec_Lassen

CHAMA, N.M. — The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad will resume full-length train rides on its 64-mile route between Chama and Antonito, Colo., as of Saturday, July 31, for the final portion of the 2021 season. For most of the season, COVID-19 restrictions have prevented the railroad from offering trips in which passengers ride the […]

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News photo: Rocky Mountainteer test run in Colorado

Two yellow locomotives leading blue, gold, and white passenger cars

ARVADA, Colo. — Two leased Union Pacific locomotives lead a Rocky Mountaineer trainset through Arvada on Tuesday as the train made the fourth of eight test trips for familiarizing crews and onboard employees before the launch of the company’s new “Rockies to Red Rocks” service between Denver and Moab, Utah. The locomotives have been leased […]

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