Grassroots Railroad Sports?

UP E-units lead a UP inspection special on the Western Pacific at Reno Junction in March of 1980. Executives from UP were inspecting the WP in anticipation of the merger that ultimately happened in 1982, when UP pulled off what the SP and ATSF previously couldn't do twenty years earlier. In 1961, SP had moved on WP first, making a major stock purchase. The Western Pacific mainline paralleled the SP almost the entirety of it's length, which would have given SP a stranglehold on traffic. Purely as a defensive tactic, to protect its Inside Gateway traffic interchanged with WP, ATSF also moved on WP and made a comparable stock purchase. Great Northern, who was also an interchange partner with WP, made a 10% stock purchase as well, and lobbied hard for the ICC to decline both merger proposals. Ultimately, the ICC agreed with GN, and ruled that WP should remain independent and ordered SP and ATSF to sell their shares in WP. The WP was pretty healthy through the '70s, interchanging lots of traffic with ATSF and Burlington Northern and making huge strides in intermodal service, but management wasn't plowing the money back into the infrastructure. The WP suffered numerous expensive derailments between Portola and Oroville in 1979. The problem was so bad the FRA sent out the T-6 test car to run up and down the line, and found multiple curves over 3 degrees where the track was out of gauge by 1/2 inch or more. The 1980 recession hit the WP hard, and pretty much killed off the major income source, cars out of the Ford factory at Milpitas, and Union Pacific moved in for the kill.

The numberboards show this is train 1-103, meaning first section of train #103, the combined City of Los Angeles/City of San Francisco. Summer traveling season has resulted in it being split into two sections, the first for first class ridership, and the second for regular coach accommodations. In the evening, the train will perform an amoebae-like division in Ogden, Utah, with one section proceeding via SP’s Overland Route as the City of San Francisco, the other continuing on UP rails to Los Angeles. 

Leading the train through Cheyenne yard is UP E9A #914. The #914 wasn't just UP's last E-unit that they ordered, it was the last E-unit ever built. UP's first E9s were delivered in May and June 1954, numbered #943-947 for the A-units and #950B-959B for the boosters. In February 1955, 30 more units were ordered, UP #948-956 and UP #960B-966B, which were delivered in May and June 1955, with #957-962 and #967B-974B following in September and October of that year. The delivery of these newer units allowed UP to shuffle its older Fairbanks-Morse Erie-built units (built in 1945-1948) and Alco PA/PB units (built in 1947 and 1949), all of which had proven to be unsatisfactory in passenger service, into light freight service. In 1956, EMD's "rebuild" program was still in place, and Union Pacific took advantage of it to replace its oldest passenger locomotives, the E3 cab and booster units, and the E6 cab and booster units. They were all traded to EMD on a one -for-one basis for eight E9 cab units, numbered #900-908, and five E9 booster units, #900B-904B, all delivered between January and June 1956. During the early 1960s, the road again found itself to be in need of more reliable passenger motive power, and the remaining E7 units were traded in on new E9s. In 1961, two E9 cab units arrived, numbered #908 and #909. In December 1962, two more E9 cab units, #910 and #911, along with two E9 booster units, #910B and #911B, were delivered. Finally, a year later, in December 1963, the road's last E9s arrived, when UP #912-914 and UP #912B and #913B were delivered. These later units boosted the total E9 fleet to 35 cab units and 35 booster units.

The #914 closed out three decades of EMD passenger cab units. After EMD had sold 510 EMD E7s and 496 EMD E8s, sales of the E9 slumped to just 144 units as railroads increasingly looked to get rid of passenger service. Amtrak would actually try and order E-units from EMD shortly after their formation, a theorized E10 that would have had two 1500hp 645 V12s, but EMD had already destroyed all the tooling for the bodies, and I believe had even binned the tooling for the A1A trucks that the E-units used. This led to the development of the disastrous SDP40F. The #914 was transferred over to Amtrak in 1971, becoming Amtrak #419. Sadly, in 1980, Amtrak retired the #914/#419 and sent it to Precision National, where it was scrapped. One has to wonder if anyone was aware of it's historical significance by that point.

An A-B-B-B-B set of E-Units roars through a location (120 cylinders! 68,040 cubic inches!) somewhere west of Cheyenne with the City Of Everywhere. This likely was a second section, with the Pullman-equipped first section having gone through, the clues being the single dome and predominate coaches.

The City Of Portland section gets a friendly wave as it comes off of the Harriman Cutoff at Dale Creek Junction in Dale Creek, Wyoming. Even in the final days of passenger service, Union Pacific ran a pretty nice passenger service. The cars and equipment were almost all matched, and the accommodations stayed pretty well-appointed.

Two UP E8s on the "City Of Hinkle". Not an official City streamliner, this nickname was given to the short mixed train that ran between Spokane and Hinkle, Oregon by railfans. Usually rating an F-Unit or a Geep, it's rated two E8s to handle a baggage car, a coach, a tank car, two hoppers and a caboose on July 28, 1968

Since the Great Depression, UP Train #17-18, the Portland Rose (Chicago-Portland), had been one of Union Pacific’s classier operations, even boasting for a time its own individual china pattern (depicting, naturally, roses). But starting in the mid-1960s the consist, which once included an RPO, diner, lounge, chair cars, and sleepers, had been shrinking, and by October 9, 1968, as Train #18 leaves Denver on its long day’s journey to Kansas City, all that’s left are two express cars and two coaches behind an E8a. The Portland Rose will hang on until Amtrak in 1971, then disappear despite occasional talk of a revival. 

An A-B-A set of Alco PA-1s lead a mail train over Sherman Hill in 1956. Union Pacific soured on the Alco PAs pretty quickly after they had a number of failures with the GE-supplied air-cooled turbochargers. When Union Pacific made an announcement that they were making a large purchase of new diesel power, Alco reportedly contacted them because they hadn't received any orders and wanted to know if there were going to be any orders headed their way. Union Pacific told them that, no, they would not be placing any orders for Alco locomotives because they were having too many turbo failures in the hot climate. In 1958, Union Pacific yanked the steam generators out of all their PAs, regeared them with lower speed gearing, and tossed them in freight service until final retirement in 1965.

UP 2-8-0 #430 gives a quick blast of the whistle for a couple of young railfans as it leaves Genoa, Nebraska with a mixed train on October 5th, 1957.

Still in Union Pacific colors but now in the employ of Amtrak, grubby E9A #957, headed west with the California Zephyr, meets an equally grubby Southern Pacific SD45 in pusher service on Donner Pass.

Farewell, Saluda Grade. The former Southern Railway line, which featured a grueling average 4.7% grade for 3 miles with peaks of 5.1%, the steepest Class I mainline in the US, has officially been sold by Norfolk Southern for conversion into a rail trail. 

The line was idled by Norfolk Southern back in 2001 due to a washout. Norfolk Southern had better lines in the area, since Saluda was a grueling operation with a lot of operational difficulties and risks. NS has since removed the signals and crossing guards and severed it from their system, by placing mounds of diets across the rails on both ends. There has also been a number of other washouts on the line since its been idled. It would have taken an insane traffic spike and simultaneous failure of other routes to make them even remotely consider reviving Saluda, and even then it would have taken considerable rehabilitation to get it operational again. They also aold of 46 miles of one end of the W Line and 26 miles of the other end to Watco to operate as a short line, but have retained ownership of the grade.

There was always talk of trying to make a tourist line of it, but that never held much water with me. Trying to make a profitable venture out of excursions over that grade would have been nigh impossible. The one time they sent N&W #611 over it unassisted, she could only manage 5 cars and was down on her hands and knees. You'd have to run lots of horsepower, preferably with AC traction, and short trains, and you'd be beating the hell out of equipment and hoping your dynamic brakes were good. It'd be good Shay or Climax territory, but you'd chew through brake shoes. And it wouldn't surprise me if insurance companies have you a hard time.

In the end, I can't see any other future for it where it remains an intact operational rail line. I hate seeing rails torn up for trails, but the reality is that Saluda has been dead for a long time, it just didn't know it.

NickD said:

Expect James West and Artemus to step out.

In reply to NickD :

I agree. It's a shame to see the loss of another piece of iconic railroad history, but there's really no valid reason to keep it. 

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, I can't see a future where it's an operational stretch of rails, either under NS or anyone else. Watco owns and operates both ends of the W Line, with just Saluda Grade between them, and even they didn't want that hill

Norfolk Southern GE C44-9Ws coming off of Saluda with a coal drag in 1997.

N&W #611 arriving in Saluda with a five car excursion, having just scaled the grade by herself. The running gear is white with sand that was ground to a fine dust under slipping drivers. The crest of the grade is just visible to the right underneath the highway bridge.

Taken from a diesel helper behind #611 somewhere between Tryon and Melrose, NC. Diesels were assisting #611 from Spartanburg, SC to Melrose, NC. From Melrose, #611 would tackle the famous Saluda Grade, 4+ percent, for the first time, by herself. The line between Tryon, NC to Melrose was a bit of a climb with many sharp curves as evident in the photo. After arriving at Melrose, #611 was cut off and the diesels took the train, less five cars, on to Saluda, and then #611 and the five coaches followed putting on a spectacular show for the hundreds of people trackside.

A trio of Southern SD35s grind their way up Saluda, long hood forward as the Southern leaned towards. Note the amount of sand lining the rails from trains clawing their way uphill. Also, very odd that the near track has all the rail joints aligned. Temporary panel, or shoo-fly, track perhaps? 

Their train wreathed in brake smoke, Southern SD45s reach the bottom of the grade, running long hood forward.

Video footage of #611 on Saluda Grade. She stalls out, I believe due to clogged sand pipes, and eventually gets started again.

Nothing to compare to Saluda... but living in Tallahassee forever, I always wondered if there was some sexual conotation to the name for the small town of Climax Georgia.  Turns out the name has to do with railroads.  Climax is a small town in Decatur County, Georgia, United States. The town was named "Climax" because it is located at the highest point of the railroad between Savannah, Georgia, and the Chattahoochee River.  Its only 300 feet, but in these parts that qualifies as a hill.