I am a huge fan of Union Pacific and I wondering where the mainline is located. I think it is in Illinois but if I’m wrong I don’t know where the mainline would be. Do you guys know where the mainline of Union Pacific is?
Sincerely
Ryan LaPlaca
I also model UP in HO and I got a track map from there website. Hope this is of some help, Mike
There main line runs from Chicago to California ,so it runs through several states.
The orginal Union pacific ran from Omaha, Nebraska through Wyoming to a place in Utah just north of Salt Lake City. Over the years the Union Pacific has aquired a few rail lines, to name a few Missouri Pacific, Missouir-Kansas-Texas (KATY), Chicago & Northwestern, Denver and Rio Grande Western, Southern Pacific, Western Pacific and Cotton Belt. The system includes many main lines. It is probably safe to model the Union Pacific any where west of the Mississipi River.
Originally, the Union Pacific began on the banks of the Missouri River at Omaha, NB, and ran west until the famous meeting with the Central Pacific at Promontory, UT (which is now a National Historic Site.) Since then, by merging with everything that the original Chicago, Burlington and Quincy didn’t acquire, UP has spread like fungus and now runs two separate transcontinentals and reaches into just about everywhere west of the Mississippi River and south of the extreme northern tier of states.
The two “scenic subdivisions” of the steam- and streamliner-era UP that most people will recognize instantly are the fast-flat runs across the Nebraska prairie, and the mountain climbs in Wyoming and western Utah. Scenically and operationally, they are totally different.
The reference books on the UP would fill a library, so research is more a problem of selecting from an overabundance rather than searching out obscure sources. I will leave suggesting specific titles to the true UP fans among us.
Chuck
Doesn’t matter where the mainline starts it always ends up at the bank!!!
Actually there, RyanLaP, the historic mainline of the Onion Specific - the “transcontinental” mainline - ran from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Ogden, Utah - I know, Promontory, Utah but the terminus was there for such a short time that it hardly qualifies as such - Why Council Bluffs?? you ask. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 which empowered the OP placed the eastern terminus on the east bank of the Missouri River which required the OP to build a bridge - they did but it took them years to do so!
In the 1880s the OP incorporated the Oregon Short Line and Oregon Railway and Navigation Company to link the transcontinental main at Granger, Wyoming with the mouth of the Columbia River at Portland, Oregon. Los Angeles was linked to the transcontinental main at Ogden with the incorporation and completion of the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad in 1905(?). Another trunk was the old Kansas Pacific from Kansas City to Denver completed shortly after the transcontinental trunk across Nebraska. The OP incorporated that line in the 1880s and promptly entered into their first bankruptcy because of it. Through acquisition of other corporations OP gained additional access to Denver from Julesburg, Colorado and from Cheyenne, Wyoming.
That remained the quintessential OP until the great merger/acquisition spasm of the mid-1980s when the Western Pacific, Missouri Pacific, and Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) disappeared under a coat of Armour Yellow. Today, OP has mainlines almost everywhere except on the moon - and, as far as I know, they may be working on that.
What’s “Union pacific”? [}:)]
UNION PACIFIC???That is just the BEST railroad there is. I thought even the begineers knew that LOL Mike
Yes, as the others have said it is hard to say anymore, but for me “THE” mainline of the Union Pacfic is still from Omaha NE almost straight west to Ogden Utah.
From there I don’t know if they run more traffic to Okland over the old SP line or over the WP feather river route; or if more traffic goes south through Las Vegas to LA, or more traffic goes NW to Portland.
Depends on what you consider ‘Mainline’.
ORIGINAL TRANSCONTINENTAL LINE: Omaha NB, across WY, to Ogden UT where their ‘heavy’ power ran - double tracked most of the way. UP ran their RR primarily between E & W ‘feeders’. Technically between the C&NW at Council Bluffs IA to the CP at Promintory UT where the government had to decide the spot, because both railroads built past each other. With the Oregon Short line and SPLA&SL tracks , UP reached the Pacific coast and San Pedro & Portland seaports.
With MP and later acquisitions, I’m not sure what constitutes UP’s ‘mainline’ anymore. There are many RR books avail on the UP that might help…
Assuming from your Ill. references that that’s what you’re primarily interested in, the current UP (formerly C&NW) main line leaves Chicago at Oak Park and passes through Geneva, de Kalb, Rochelle, Sterling and crosses the Mississippi at Clinton Ia. If you want a little up close and personal obsrvation you can’t beat Rochelle, about 75 miles west of Chicago. The local city fathers have provide a covered observation deck where the railfan multitudes can observe, not only the UP main line, but also the BNSF Chicago to Twin Cities (and thence to the great Pacific Norhtwest) main that crosses the UP at grade.