An adventure - Warning, nothing to do with the Frisco!

Discussion in 'Action Photos' started by meteor910, Jan 20, 2010.

  1. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    My wife Caroline has insisted I clean up my railroad room, and as you guys well know, she is the boss! In the process, I have re-discovered some pics and stuff I have in the files I had forgotten about.

    These attached pics reflect an adventure I had on the Union Pacific in 1996 - nothing to do with the Frisco, but I thought you might enjoy seeing them anyway. Hope so, I sure had a great time!

    At the time (mid-1990's), I was in charge of the manufacturing operations of my employer. We shipped a lot of product on the rails, the Union Pacific was our largest rail carrier, and one of my products was the largest product we shipped on the UP.

    The UP was going through their "merger each year" period, and frankly, their service was suffering. We had cars delayed, cars lost, cars derailed, and cars miss-routed all too often. The UP was/is a good carrier, but were overloaded by all the disruption from their many mergers.

    We felt we needed a summmit conference to address the problems, since we were a major carrier on the UP, and so proposed one. The UP responded with a "yes", but suggested we meet at our shipping plant in Idaho, and suggested we meet them in Green River, WY, where they would take us out to Idaho on the "OSL" (Oregon Short Line - Granger, WY to Portland) via a business train they were going to ferry out to Portland for a board meeting. We said "yes".

    Attached are several pics from the trip. I requested, and was granted, a cab ride - in the trailing unit, UP "Fast Forty" SD40-2 UP 3607. This will be forever known as "my" SD40-2! The lead unit was UP 3649, another "Fast Forty". The "Fast Forty's" were UP SD40-2's geared for high speed merchandise trains, and also business train movements.

    Following are the pics:
    o My view out of the engineer's seat (reversed) of UP 3607 at about 60-65 MPH on the OSL (UP 3607 was the trailing unit)
    o Same. We were really hammering along here! Thrilling!
    o UP 3607 - "my" UP SD40-2, a "Fast Forty"
    o UP 3607's portrait
    o Our lead unit, UP 3649, a UP "Fast Forty" SD40-2
    o UP 3649 portrait
    o Our tail car, UP business car "Kenefick". We spent the night on it in Idaho - I had a stateroom up at the head end of the car. Cozy, but very nice! So was the diner several cars up!
    o Biz car Kenefick's portrait

    It was a great trip. We had a good meeting in Idaho with the UP. They remain a good carrier for us.

    Ken
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 20, 2010

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