UNION PACIFIC

INTRODUCTION

The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting marks UP, UPP, UPY). Legally known as Union Pacific Railroad Company or simply Union Pacific. It is a freight-hauling railroad which operates 8,300 locomotives over 32,200 miles (51,800 km) in 23 states west of New Orleans and Chicago. The Union Pacific Railroad is one of the largest transportation companies in the world, and is number 2 in the United States, after BNSF. The Union Pacific Railroad is the main operating company of the Union Pacific Corporation, with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Lance Fritz has been the president of Union Pacific since 2015.

UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD

The original Union Pacific Railroad was founded in 1862 and was a part of the First Transcontinental Railroad project. Which would later be known as the Overland route. In 1880, the First Transcontinental Railroad was absorbed by the Union Pacific Railway. Which was absorbed by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1897. The original Union Pacific Railroad was incorporated on July 1, 1862, under an act of Congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The company began to expand and was purchased by another company with dominant shareholder Jay Gould who owned the Kansas Pacific, and intended to merge it with the Union Pacific. The original Union Pacific Railroad then transformed into the Union Pacific Railway.

The Union Pacific over the next century acquired and absorbed several railroads and companies including Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, the Western Pacific Railroad, the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. The Union Pacific in 1998, merged with Southern Pacific Transportation Company. Itself a giant system that was absorbed by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad maintaining the Southern Pacific name. Today, Union Pacific and its chief competitor, BNSF Railway, the nation’s largest freight railroad by volume, have a duopoly on transcontinental freight rail lines in the western United States.

Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad

FACILITIES

The Union Pacific network includes hundreds of yards. Most of these yards are flat yards used for local switching. Intermodal terminals and hump yards are the other type of yards it consists. Intermodal terminals are usually ports, but the Union Pacific also has terminals inland for trucks. Such as the terminal which opened in 2009 in San Antonio.

LOCOMOTIVES

The Union Pacific has owned some of the most powerful locomotives in rail transportation. These include members of the Northern-type including the 844. The Challenger-type (including the 3985), and the Big Boy steam locomotives (including the 4014). Union Pacific ordered the first (diesel) streamliner, the largest fleet of turbine-electric locomotives in the world, and still owns the largest operational diesel locomotive (the 6936).

PASSENGER SERVICE

Between the years 1869 and 1971, the Union Pacific provided passenger service across its famous Overland Route. The last passenger train operated by the Union Pacific was the westbound City of Los Angeles, arriving at LA Union Station on May 2. The Union Pacific has since then hosted Amtrak trains to satisfy its common carrier requirements. As of 2018, Union Pacific does not provide regularly-scheduled intercity passenger services.

SOURCES