The last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific was Northern No. It was saved in for excursion and public relations service, an assignment that continues to this day. Any current excursions scheduled are posted on the Schedule page.
Two other Northerns are on public display: No. A third Northern, No. If you are a supplier, contractor or carrier, please visit the Suppliers page.
Union Pacific. Emergencies: Weight: , lbs. Cylinder: Diameter: 25 in. Stroke: 32 in. Driving Wheel Diameter: 80 in. She was saved from scrapping in , even though many employees deemed it too expensive to preserve or have it operate in normal service.
It was thankfully chosen for restoration, and as of , she is now part of Union Pacific's heritage fleet and is used on company and public excursion trains along with special revenue freight like with EMD DDA40X unit , another heritage fleet member. To this day, remains the only steam locomotive in the United States that was never retired from a class 1 railroad. The FEF-3 F our E ight F our; class locomotives were some of the last steam locomotives built by ALCO, and were capable of dual service steam locomotive development, as funds and research were being concentrated into the development of diesel locomotives; hence the FEF Series steam locomotives were once used to compete with early diesel locomotives.
Locomotive Wiki Explore. Locomotive Wiki. Big Boys Challengers This versatility, along with the locomotive being equipped with some of the latest technology, made the Northern Type one of the most successful designs of all time with over 1, built for 36 different railroads. The Union Pacific's designs were primarily meant to be used in passenger service with their 77" to 80" drivers. All three classes featured a bit of streamlining and weighed roughly the same although each subsequent class was a tad lighter than the previous.
All three classes could produce psi of boiler pressure and between 63,, pounds of tractive effort. Being the last s purchased by and delivered to the railroad, UP and her siblings saw the shortest service life. They were used on UP's secondary named trains like the Challenger , Portland Rose , and Overland Flyer until at which point they were bumped into freight service. Here they remained until when UP had fully dieselized and were retired permanently from service.
As early as Union Pacific realized the benefits of having a steam program and chose to head the new division. Union Pacific, like many railroads, was quite fond of the the Hancock Inspirator Company's whistles. To learn more about this whistle please click here. The locomotive was restored to active service in and since then has been a wildly successful PR tool for Union Pacific running numerous excursions over the railroad each year, usually in the name of safety such as the "Operation Lifesaver" program.
Today UP also operates with sister , a Challenger which was restored in the early s. Some interesting facts about UP include that the locomotive has never been officially retired from the railroad's roster, ever since its purchase from Alco in Also, the locomotive was originally a coal-burner but was later converted to run on oil while still hauling freight and passengers for the UP, which it continues to use today.
Lastly, between and the locomotive's number had to be changed to as UP's numbering system bumped the steamer for an EMD GP30 which used the number. In the was returned to its original numbering and now the railroad has reserved it exclusively for the steamer. Normally restoring and operating steam locomotives is an endeavor that most groups have a hard time just being able to pull off and maintain year after year must always tip their cap to them for accomplishing such a difficult task.
However, when seemingly endless funding is available, as in the case of the Union Pacific's steam program, it's truly amazing what can be accomplished.
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