1981 Union Pacific SD45 Manifest Freight

Lead unit SD45 3605 was delivered to the Union Pacific from EMD in April of 1968, part of an order of 50 units.  All had 20 cylinder EMD 645 engines producing 3600 hp.  645 refers to the cubic inches per cylinder. (3605 was actually renumbered to number 5 in 1978, but I am going to give myself a pass on that one).

Southern Pacific Tunnel Motor SD40T-2.  8368 was used as a Lococontrol master on SP Tehachapi loop trains with receiver T-2's located as mid-train helpers.  In this case, it is just working off hours owed by the SP to the UP.  It is designated a "T" model   as the air intakes were on the lower rear to get cleaner air in tunnels and snow sheds. Beautiful Intermountain model.

I know very little about this engine other than it probably came thru acquisition and it is a GP40-2.

CN 50' plug door box car from MT

PRR 50' outside braced plug door box car from MT.  Conrail renumbering has not yet caught up to this car.

DM outside braced box car from MT.  Lightly weathered and ready to roll.

A Bachmann car from the 70's, stripped, roof walk removed, custom painted and decaled, MT trucks and couplers, brake wheel and steps. Then weathered. Oldie but a goodie.

BCOL 50' plug and sliding door box from MT.  Lightly weathered.

BN 40' plug and sliding door box, with roof walk removed, weathered.  Retains Bettendorf trucks.

RF&P 50' sliding door box from Micro Trains.  The colors on this car were outstanding, and it took quite a while before I decided to remove the roof walk and weather the car.  Bought another one to keep new.

SP 60' bulkhead flat with aftermarket lumber load

Trailer Train as above.

SSW with lumber load

Atlas CNW double plug door box.  Yellow weathers nicely.

Another short line car from MT

Hydra Cushion SP car with plug doors.  Roof walk removed.

GBW 50' box car, nicely weathered, from MT 

P&LE 50' box car from MT.  Green paint scheme declares that P&LE is part of the old Penn Central system.  Roof walk removed.

GM&O 40 footer.  Short ladders indicate this car from MT issued without roof walks.

Heavily weathered St. Louis San Francisco 50' box car from MT.

Here's one from the original MT 6-pack.  I managed to purchase one of each of the 3 road names in this package.

I removed the roof walk from this GN 50' plug door box car and weathered it some.  The paint is GN Big Sky Blue.  The car is from MT.

The Rahway Valley is represented on the Needles Division by this MT 50' outside braced box car.

Atlas 50' plug door box car, roof walk removed and weathered.  Most UP freight cars had silver trucks and silver painted on the wheel sets.

Atlas 50' double plug door box car.  Light green door probably means the car is designated for some type of special loading.

MILW outside braced 50' box car from MT, suitably weathered.

This Railbox car looks as if it has seen a lot of action. (from MT.)

Black lettering broadcasts Soo Line.  50' outside braced box car from MT.  I avoided the urge to excessively weather this car, as I made it resemble a prototype photo I had.

Another beautiful Centralia caboose

A Video of this train can be seen on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/Rc65bdqNnt4

 

1981 TOFC led by FP45 5942

The FP45's were originally ordered for passenger service and thus had a steam generator in the rear of the loco, making it about 5 feet longer that its cousin, the F45, the trailing locomotive on this train.  The steam generators were removed sometime after May 1, 1971, when Amtrak took control of U.S. passenger service.  The Santa Fe would not surrender their prize FP45's to Amtrak.




Close up of mild weathering on FP45 5942. Santa Fe had nine of the fifteen FP45's manufactured by the Electro Motive Division of General Motors.  The Milwaukee Road bought the other six. 

Beginning in January 1973, Santa Fe began rebuilding its fleet of eighty SD24's.  They received engine upgrades, new traction motors, upgraded wiring, and other improvements, boosting its horsepower from 2400 to 2625.



 F45 5937 is a beautiful Athearn model.  These F units were basically an SD45 with a cowled hood.  It was the freight version of their FP45 used in passenger service just prior to Amtrak. With 20 cylinders, these units packed a whopping 3600 h.p. from its 645E3 prime mover. 

F89-J flat car by BLMA.  On board is a Penn Central 40' trailer and an American President Lines exterior post 40 footer.

Santa Fe drop frame trailer (TWX) and 40 custom painted/decaled Burlington trailer (MT)'



The first 10 flats in this train are the F89-J's. The yellow with black is the 70's paint scheme. The F89-J's were first manufactured by American Car & Foundry in the 1960's.   Here are two trailer offerings from Athearn.

This F89-J sports the original brown with white lettering scheme of the 60's.  Santa Fe "Piggy-Back service" scheme originated in the late 60's, as did the B&O paint scheme.

Custom painted and decaled 45' Transamerica trailer (MT) and 40 foot exterior post Santa Fe trailer from Athearn.

Micro Trains 45' Western pacific trailer and Athearn 40' Trailer Rail Service, sporting red undercarriage and red wheelsets.

A couple of Santa Fe 40' cars from Trainworx.  The white trailer is refrigerated, with mechanical equipment and fuel tank attached to the undercarriage.

TWX Western Pacific drop frame trailer and Athearn SF 40 footer

MT 45 ft. Chicago and Northwestern trailer and a beautiful TWX Pacific Fruit Express refrigerated trailer.  The flat is the final F89-J in this train.

Rio Grande (TWX) and Santa Fe (Athearn).  This is the first of two TWX flat cars in the 70's yellow and black paint scheme.  It is a model of the Pullman Standard 85' flat car, first manufactured in the 1960's

Another beautiful 40' trailer from TWX, the Bud of California, and Baltimore and Ohio exterior post trailer ("Tofcee Service", a very uncute way of saying TOFC, trailer on flat car).  Caboose is Atlas wide vision model.  Santa Fe owned 55 of these wide vision Waycars, purchased in two groups, 1974 (Ce-6)and 1978 (Ce-8).

 You can see a video of this train on YouTube at:

                              http://youtu.be/6ayC8SdFQuY

1981 Union Pacific U30C Grain Train (Empties)

UP General Electric locomotives have white number boards with black numerals, while EMD locos had black number boards with white numerals.  Such is the case for U30C pictured above.  Every photo I've seen of a GE loco (U50C, U28 and 30C's, and U30C-7's) from this time period features white number boards.

 

SD40-2 unit 3401 features updated paint scheme with the large 3401 under the cab window.  In mid 1980, The UP decided to change the standard on air horns, now having them mounted on the roof of the cab.  This move is reflected on this unit, with the "firecracker" antennae moved to the right and back of those horns.

3379 is another "snoot" SD40-2, so named because of the extended short hood, which were designed to house radio equipment for remote control service.  This planned RCS operations were never put into place.



Micro Trains GAMX 4-bay covered hopper

Atlas NATX 4-bay covered hopper



Atlas UP 4-bay covered hopper.  All hopper cars in this train have Micro Trains trucks/couplers.  All are weathered to some degree.  All retain stock walkways.

MT UP 3-bay covered hopper

Red Caboose outside braced 3-bay covered hopper

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hopper

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hopper and a UP
Red Caboose outside braced 3-bay covered hopper

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hopper

Red Caboose UP outside braced 3-bay covered hopper

Atlas LUCX 4-bay covered hopper

MT SP 3-bay covered hopper

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hoppers

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hoppers

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hopper

Red Caboose WP outside braced 3-bay covered hopper

Atlas UP 4-baycovered hopper

Atlas ACFX 4-bay covered hopper

Atlas UP 4-bay covered hopper and Centralia caboose with early small lettering.

A Video of this train has been posted on YouTube at:

http://youtu.be/7FfV42H00Aw


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