Hi train people. I was wondering what railroad was better in popularity in trains. I have seen alot of Union Pacific in my area but I have some seen some old Southern Pacific locomotives for pushers. I like the colors of both rail lines. It seemed that Union Pacific bought Southeren Pacific’s railroad. they have nice details on the locomotives. A lot of there engines are made from General Electric and some Electric Motive. Well I think I have about mostly said everything. What do you think of both railroads.
I live two blocks from the UP yard in Fresno. I have seen speed lettering SP with UP painted on the cab, COTTON BELT (slsw) with UP painted on the cab, it looks weird.
First of all, you have to realize that before the UP takeover of SP, they were two DISTINCTLY different railroads, even if they did form part of the original transcontinental mainline from Ogden to Oakland. Historically, UP was a midwestern railroad that ran from Omaha NE to Ogden UT, with later-built or acquired lines north to Portland, OR and south to Los Angeles. Southern Pacific, which absorbed the parent Central Pacific railroad, pretty much owned the Pacfic Coast from Portland south to LA, and then east through Texas to New Orleans. Their original main line over the Sierra Nevada was the western end of the Overland route, shared with UP. The territory the two railroads served was as different as night and day, the SP being largely a mountain railroad in California (Sierra, Coast and Cascade ranges). UP traversed fairly open country and had the easiest crossing of the Rockies west of the Mississippi. SP had the most grueling passage of the Sierra Nevada and over the Cascades and Coast Ranges.(grades up to 2.5%). Even when UP decided to come into Northern California, it did so by acquring the Western Pacific with a very easy (but very round-about route) whose grades never went above 1%.
UP’s steam power was servicable but not particularly noteworthy, SP’s steam power was not only servicable, but unique and incredibly HANDSOME!
You can pick up a lot of UP steam power from almost any current loco manufacturer. With SP, it’s pretty much brass imports, except for their GS Northerns and AC Cab-forwards.
As you can tell, I miss SP like crazy. Something about UP’s yellow and gray churning through mountains as rugged as the Sierra Nevada, just looks a little ‘faggy’ to me. Besides, UP has not made a lot of friends since it took over California.
Tom [xx(][xx(]
TWhite pretty well covered the geographical driving forces that made UP and SP different, but I challenge his statement that UP steam power was “not particularly noteworthy.”
UP was the home of the Big Boy 4-8-8-4’s, the originator of the Challenger 4-6-6-4’s, and, earlier, the only road to put 12 drivers in a rigid frame. Noteworthy enough for most purposes, I think.
After steam, UP was the only road to run gas turbines, as well as the only road to run DD-40’s. In fact, UP has always been known for the biggest (though not always the best) motive power west of the Mississippi.
(Yes, I know SP’s later AC-classes of backwards Yellowstones had high tractive effort, but they couldn’t touch the Big Boy or Challenger in top speed.)
There is a sound reason why Onion Specific bought and absorbed Sufferin’ Pacific instead of the other way around; over the course of the last thirty years of its corporate existence - and I consider that Sufferin’ Pacific ceased to exist as an independent corporate entity when Phillip Anshutz and Rio Grande Industries purchased it in 1988 despite Anshutz’ consolidating the whole thing under the Sufferin’ Pacific logo - from the mid-60s on, Sufferin’ Pacific, year after year, could not help putting prodiguous quantities of red-ink in the ledger books.
The ill-fated merger with Santa Fe MAY have provided a path of salvation but when that deal got pooh-poohed by the ICC they were doomed, Phillip Anshutz and his
billion(s) or not.
Her motive power fleet was aging - I’m not sure how it was running but I do know how it was looking. She really wasn’t much better off in the mid-90s than The Rock had been in the late-70s; unlike The Rock, however, she did go to some desirous places and that fact brought out the best of Onion Specifics predatory instincts. One of the prime motivations behind UP’s order for a thousand SD70Ms is because SP’s motive power fleet was in such p-poor physical condition. If you are considering modeling the “modern” UP with SP locomotives in UP lashups you need to add a lot of white to your SP Grey paint - purchase adequate supplies of rust also because, ten years into the UP takeover, that’s the way they look. Oh, yeah!! Buy some grafitti decals also and apply them liberally.