Locomotives and trains featured in this edition include:
≈ Union Pacific 3565 and another SD40-2 are leading a single-car eastbound Sidney, Nebraska local through a roaring ground blizzard at Durham, Wyoming, 13 miles east of Cheyenne on March 14, 1990. 3565 is on the south track; a close examination of the image will reveal the northbound track, sort of. This is bad weather at its finest.
≈ Union Pacific 3802 and 3995 are on a double-headed westbound freight three miles east of Granite, Wyoming on February 1, 1953. 3802 was the third Challenger built (1936) and 3995 was the fifth from the last one (1943), both by the American Locomotive Company. This image was made shortly before the #3 Track between Speer and Dale, Wyoming was placed in service. Prior to that, a manifest freight could become a dispatcher’s nightmare, but most of the time the traffic could be spread out with judicious use of sidings to keep the hotter trains moving.
≈ Union Pacific 828, a Class FEF-2 (4-8-4, second order) is on the approach to Buford, Wyoming with Mail Train #6 eastbound on March 30, 1952. The FEF-2 Class consisted of fifteen locomotives numbered from 820 to 834, built by Alco from an order placed in 1939. All were coal burners (converted later to burn oil), and part of the second of three orders totaling 45 locomotives. By 1961 only 844 was still operable. It remains available today for special trains, renumbered 8444 at first in deference to a new GP-30, but now carrying its original number: 844.
≈ Union Pacific 9062, seen here on a freight at Valley, Nebraska on June 19, 1955, was one of a unique class of 88 locomotives. They were three-cylinder engines with a 4-12-2 wheel arrangement and the longest rigid frame of any locomotives anywhere. Known as the Union Pacific type, they were built by the American Locomotive Company in 1929 and 1930. 87 of them were still in service in 1954. These locomotives were expensive to maintain, but UP had a tremendous investment in them, so they remained in service until late 1954. All were set aside by late 1955, and the sole survivor, 9000, was saved and is on display in Pomona, California.
≈ Union Pacific 6294 (three SD-60M’s and a C44-9W) is leading a westbound North Platte—Seattle Expedited train (SECSZ) two miles east of Granite, Wyoming on March 6, 1992.
≈ Union Pacific Challengers 3712 and 3715 lead a 77-car eastbound freight near Baxter, Wyoming on June 15, 1959. Baxter is located 19 miles east of Green River. Scenes like this one taken by master photographer Jack Pfeifer (who spent his working career as a claims agent with the Union Pacific) will become impossible to see as all steam locomotives would be set aside by the late fall of 1959. Both 3712 and 3715 were scrapped that autumn.
≈ Union Pacific Gas Turbine 54, one of a class of ten, is leading an eastbound freight out of Ogden, Utah on July 22, 1958. These units were delivered as a single unit with a self-contained fuel tank in 1952. In July 1956 an auxiliary fuel tank was added to extend their operating range. (The auxiliary tanks came from 9000-series 4-12-2’s that had been scrapped.) By the middle of 1963 all ten turbines would be off the roster.
≈ Union Pacific Super Turbine 14 is bringing an eastbound manifest freight through the Laramie, Wyoming yard in August 1968. Turbine 14 was delivered to the UP by General Electric early in 1961. UP had 30 of them on their roster, all rated at 8,500 horsepower. They were used primarily between North Platte, Nebraska and Ogden, Utah. The escalating cost of Bunker C fuel, coupled with increasing mechanical difficulties, saw units being set aside, as diesels once again could haul more freight at a lower cost. All were off the roster by early February 1970.
≈ Union Pacific 3800 was the first of 105 4-6-6-4 Challengers built by the American Locomotive Company between 1936 and 1944. Here it is on September 18, 1956, in work train service. It sits in the 6,336-foot-long center siding at the east end of Hermosa, Wyoming, waiting for the main line to clear. 3800 would remain in service for another couple of years, mainly working around Cheyenne and hauling ballast trains.
≈ Union Pacific 4018, a ponderous 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, is leading an eastbound 103-car freight out of Green River, Wyoming on October 12, 1957. The first 20 Big Boys were built by the American Locomotive Company. The first one, 4000, was delivered at Council Bluffs, Iowa in September 1941. A second order for five more would follow in 1942 and 1943. UP got their money’s worth out of 4018. It went into service in 1942, and it was set aside in 1958. Despite a relatively short service life —a little over sixteen years— it was operated 1,037,123 miles. Eight Big Boys were donated to museums and for display, but 4018 was not among them. It went to scrap in 1962.
≈ Here is a view of one of the busiest places on the Union Pacific as well as one of the most important. This is the mammoth Cheyenne, Wyoming fuel facility. During the steam era, day or night, summer or winter or any time in between, locomotives took on fuel and water; minor running repairs were also performed here. In this view are Big Boy 4002 and locomotive 5301, a Class T-T-T (2-10-2) built in 1923 by the American Locomotive Company being prepared for service. Soon, both locomotives would be heading out of town, and other engines would be under the coal chute.
≈ Union Pacific Consolidation (2-8-0) is hard at work, assisting with the 1956 sugar beet harvest, delivering many carloads of beets to several Great Western Sugar Company plants located in northeastern Colorado and surrounding states. It is December 8, 1956, and 6072 is picking up cars at Gill, Colorado. (Gill is located about ten miles northeast of Greeley.) 6072 was delivered to UP in 1908 and served for 49 years. It was retired in 1957 and donated for display to Fort Riley, Kansas, where it remains today.
Other Train Titles
Tide-mark publishes a notable group of train calendars featuring classic images of steam locomotives and great named trains of railroads across the United States. Calendar titles for 2025 include: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Denver Rio Grande Railroad in Colorado Narrow Gauge, Gulf Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central, Milwaukee Road, New York Central, Pennsylvania Railroad, Rock Island, Santa Fe Railway, the Southern Pacific and Union Pacific. Classic trains are also pictured in Great Trains featuring paintings by artist Gil Bennett and in Howard Fogg’s Trains. Contemporary trains are the focus of the Railroading! calendar that offers 24 spectacular full-color images of trains from across North America. Tide-mark also publishes the Streetcars and Trolleys calendar with classic images from a wide range of cities in the U.S., as well as the new San Francisco Cable Cars title.
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