This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2021) |
Union Pacific 618 | |||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||
References: [1] [2] |
Union Pacific 618 is a C-2 class 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive previously owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. The engine is now located in Heber City, Utah and owned by the Heber Valley Railroad. Built in July 1907 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) of Eddystone, Pennsylvania, No. 618 is one of 2 surviving Oregon Short Line C-2 locomotives. The locomotive operated in revenue service until 1958. It was then donated to the State of Utah, where it sat on display for many years. In the mid 1960s, a full restoration effort began on the locomotive with the promise of heading up Utah's first tourist railroad in Heber City after the state donated the engine to the National Railway Historical Society. Today, it is one of UP's oldest locomotives and the first steam locomotive to be removed from a Public Park, and put back into operational condition in excursion service. [1] The engine currently is out of service in Heber City, Utah undergoing its FRA inspection and some major restoration work back to operating condition. [1]
In July 1907, the Oregon Short Line Railroad received No. 1068. The 2-8-0 locomotive was part of the C-2 Class of locomotives for the OSL, which was a subsidiary of the Union Pacific. [1] The 2-8-0 was part of a three locomotive order from the Oregon Short Line Railroad built that month by Baldwin and numbered 1066-1068. [1]
During World War II, the locomotive pulled trains from the Ogden Yards to the Ogden Army Defense Base. This lasted from 1941-1945 when the Japanese surrendered. Afterward, the engine continued to handle freight in Utah and Idaho. Around 1949-1951, the standard square coal tender was replaced with a Vanderbilt styled tender. The reason why is still unknown. Through the 1950s, the locomotive continued to operate on freight duties until the engine was replaced by diesel locomotives on the Union Pacific. The locomotive's last assignment was to act as a snowplow near the Geneva Steel Mill. [3] The Union Pacific had decided to donate 618 to the State of Utah with the agreement that the locomotive could not be sold, scrapped, or given to an out of state railroad. [1] In late May of 1958, the locomotive was fired up what some thought was the very last time. It pulled into the Diesel Complex in Salt Lake City. It was then pushed across North Temple Street to the County Fairgrounds and placed on display. [1]
Initially, the locomotive was fairly well received by the public. However, after a while, the locomotive had started to become an eyesore. [1] Many people wanted to get rid of No. 618, but the stipulations of the Union Pacific giving No. 618 to the state was that it couldn't be scrapped, sold, or given out of state. This prompted many to speculate what else to do with the locomotive. In the mid 1960s, there was a thought of just burying the engine. According to Stephen Carr, a historian at the Heber Valley Railroad, he stated that, "There was a thought of digging a big hole right next, next to it and tumbling it into the hole. Because nobody knew what else to do with it and nobody was interested in it." [1] In addition, the fairgrounds also were going to be expanded, and the locomotive needed to be moved to allow it. However, members of the National Railway Historical Society decided to step in and in 1969, they convinced the state to donate the engine to the Promontory Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. [1] After the donation, the group started conversations with the state to use the locomotive in a brand new tourist railroad based out of Heber City, Utah on the Wasatch Railway Museum.
Two years earlier in 1967, the Denver & Rio Grande Western had abandoned the Provo Branch Line that linked Provo to Heber City. The tracks were planned to be ripped up and be turned over as an extension of U.S Route 189. [2] Several locals and businessmen fought to keep the tracks in order to start a potential tourist operation. When the Wasatch Mountain Railway moved their equipment onto the branch, Utah told them to leave. UDOT gave the historical group until April 1, 1972 to move its equipment. [2]
On December 5, 1970, restoration work was completed and No. 618 moved under its own power again for the first time in twelve years. [2] The railroad more or less balked at the order and operated the No. 618 to its new home in Heber City from Provo on December 7, 1970, with four U.S. Army hospital cars and a diver caboose. The engine would eventually arrive in Heber City Utah later that night. [2]
By 1971, the railroad added to their fleet with Pacific Lumber Co. No. 35 and a 3-Truck Shay No. 4 from the Yosemite Lumber Company. [2] On January 3, 1971, No. 618 was fired up and ran the first excursion on the Heber Creeper. In November, the state decided to rescind their eviction and granted the Wasatch Railway Museum a 25 year lease on the former branch. [2] It ran excursion trains from 1970 until 1976 when it was taken out of service for repairs. [1] After sitting for ten years, the railroad moved the engine in the shops were they began rebuilding the engine. [1]
It eventually return to service in 1986 and would continue to ran excursions trains until October 1990 when the Heber Creeper went out of business, its fired was dropped for the last and was once again retired from service and put into storage. [1] In 1992, State of Utah moved all of its railroad equipment for use by the Heber Valley Railroad. [1] For two years, the engine sat on display until 1993 when it was moved into the shops for restoration back to operating condition. [1] The restoration was completed on May 8, 1995 and it pulled its first train of the 1995 season to Deer Creek Dam and back on May 13, 1995. [1]
In 2007, the locomotive celebrated its 100th birthday and was relettered and renumbered as Oregon Short Line No. 1068. [1]
In 2010, No. 618 hauled its last trains during Memorial Day weekends for photo charters before its boiler ticket expired. After the event, it was indefinitely taken out of service in June 2010 and put on static display in front of the railroad depot were it was previously awaiting its 1,472-day inspection. [4]
In October 2014, No. 618 was removed from its display track and moved into the shops for its FRA inspection and some major restoration work to return it to operating condition again. [4] Additional work to No. 618 includes rebuilding the cab and running gear, it will also be converted from coal firing to oil firing. [4] As of May 2022, restoration work is still in progress. [4]
Heber City is a city and county seat of Wasatch County, Utah. The population was 16,856 as of the 2020 United States census. The city is located 43 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
The Wasatch Front is a major metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Utah. It consists of a chain of mostly contiguous cities and towns stretched along the Wasatch Range from Santaquin in the south to Pleasant View in the north, and containing the cities of Salt Lake City, Provo, Orem, Bountiful, Layton, and Ogden.
The EMD SW1 is a 600-horsepower (450 kW) diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Corporation between December 1938 and November 1953. Final assembly was at EMD's plant at LaGrange (McCook) Illinois. The SW1 was the second generation of 3,402 cu in (55.75 L) switcher from EMD, succeeding the SC and SW. The most significant change from those earlier models was the use of an engine of EMD's own design, the then-new 567 engine, here in 600 hp (450 kW) V6 form. 661 locomotives of this design were built, with a gap in production between March 1943 and September 1945 due to World War II.
The EMD GP35 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between July 1963 and December 1965 and by General Motors Diesel between May 1964 and January 1966. 1251 examples were built for American railroads, 26 were built for Canadian railroads and 57 were built for Mexican railroads. Power was provided by a turbocharged EMD 567D3A 16-cylinder engine which generated 2,500 horsepower (1,860 kW).
Union Pacific 3985 is a four-cylinder simple articulated 4-6-6-4 "Challenger"-type steam locomotive built in July 1943 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, New York, for the Union Pacific Railroad. No. 3985 is one of only two Challengers still in existence and the only one to have operated in excursion service.
The Union Pacific Challengers are a type of simple articulated 4-6-6-4 steam locomotive built by American Locomotive Company (ALCO) from 1936 to 1944 and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad until the late 1950s.
The Heber Valley Railroad (HVRX) is a heritage railroad based in Heber City, Utah. It operates passenger excursion trains along a line between Heber City and Vivian Park, which is located in Provo Canyon. The HVRX carries over 110,000 passengers a year.
The Sumpter Valley Railway, or Sumpter Valley Railroad, is a 3 ft narrow gauge heritage railroad located in Baker County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Built on a right-of-way used by the original railway of the same name, it carries excursion trains on a roughly 5-mile (8.0 km) route between McEwen and Sumpter. The railroad has two steam locomotives and several other pieces of rolling stock. Passenger excursion trains operate on weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through the end of September.
Southern Pacific 4449, also known as the Daylight, is the only surviving example of Southern Pacific Railroad's GS-4 class of 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotives and one of only two streamlined GS class locomotives preserved, the other being GS-6 No. 4460 at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri. GS is an abbreviation of General Service or Golden State, the latter of which was a nickname for California, where the locomotive was used to operate in revenue service.
Spokane, Portland & Seattle 700 is the oldest and only surviving example of the class "E-1" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive and the only surviving "original" Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway steam locomotive. It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in May 1938. Nearly identical to the class "A-3" Northerns built for Northern Pacific Railway, it burns oil instead of coal.
Provo Canyon is located in unincorporated Utah County and Wasatch County, Utah. Provo Canyon runs between Mount Timpanogos on the north and Mount Cascade on the south. The canyon extends from Orem on the west end to Heber City on the east. Provo Canyon is situated to the east of Utah Valley and grants access to the valleys and Uinta Basin regions that lie beyond the Wasatch front.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 3415 is a preserved class "3400" 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotive built in June 1919 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Retired in 1954, it sat in Eisenhower Park in Abilene, Kansas, until 1996. At that point, it was put on display in the Abilene and Smoky Valley yard. In 2005, it was purchased by the Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad were it was restored in December 2008 and began hauling excursion trains on the line. It is the only operating steam locomotive in Kansas and is one of four Santa Fe steam engines still operating can the U.S.
Southern Pacific Railroad 2467 is a preserved 4-6-2 “Pacific” type steam locomotive. Built by Baldwin in 1921, it was used by the Southern Pacific Railroad to pull passenger trains until it was retired from service in 1956. On July 25, 1960, it was donated to the city of Oakland, California, who had it placed on display at the Harrison Railroad Park. In July 1990 a restoration began by the Friends of the 2467, which later merged into the Pacific Locomotive Association. In June 1999 it was returned to operation and made an appearance at Railfair 1999. Although serviceable, SP 2467 is currently on static display while on loan from its operator, Pacific Locomotive Association, Inc., to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California.
Steamtown, U.S.A., was a steam locomotive museum that ran steam excursions out of North Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont, from the 1960s to 1983. The museum was founded by millionaire seafood industrialist F. Nelson Blount. The non-profit Steamtown Foundation took over operations following his death in 1967. Because of Vermont's air quality regulations restricting steam excursions, declining visitor attendance, and disputes over the use of track, some pieces of the collection were relocated to Scranton, Pennsylvania in the mid-1980s and the rest were auctioned off. After the move, Steamtown continued to operate in Scranton but failed to attract the expected 200,000–400,000 visitors. Within two years the tourist attraction was facing bankruptcy, and more pieces of the collection were sold to pay off debt.
The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF) is a registered non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Composed of a partnership of several all-volunteer non-profit groups dedicated to maintaining regional vintage railroad equipment, the ORHF was initially formed "to secure a permanent home for the City of Portland's steam locomotives, preserve the Brooklyn Roundhouse, and establish a Rail and Industrial Heritage Museum.”
The Tooele Valley Railway was a railroad founded in 1908, and owned by the Anaconda Copper corporation. The line ran from a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad and the Western Pacific Railroad at Warner Station on the western edge of Tooele, Utah, to a terminus at the International Smelting and Refining Company smelter operations on the eastern edge of Tooele. The line was abandoned around 1982, nearly a decade after the smelter closure and the end of production at the nearby Carr Fork Mine.
The history of the Union Pacific Railroad stretches from 1862 to the present. For operations of the current railroad, see Union Pacific Railroad; for the holding company that owns the current railroad, see Union Pacific Corporation.
The Union Pacific heritage fleet includes commemorative and historic equipment owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. The fleet currently consists of two historic steam locomotives, three historic diesel locomotives, seventeen modern diesel locomotives in historic or commemorative paint schemes and nearly four dozen passenger cars used on office car specials and excursion trains.
Southern Pacific No. 1744 is a preserved American class "M-6" 2-6-0 "Mogul" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Southern Pacific Railroad in November 1901. Originally equipped with Vauclain compound cylinders, it was rebuilt with conventional cylinders in 1912. It operated for many years out of Oakland, California on the Southern Pacific's Western Division and in California's Central Valley where the locomotive and its classmates were fondly called “Valley Mallets” by their crews. The locomotive was made famous in later years by pulling some of the last steam excursions on the SP alongside other steam locomotives, including 4-8-4 4460. In 1959, No. 1744 was donated to the Sons of Utah Pioneers in Corinne, Utah where it remained on static display, until 1980. That year, it was restored by New London Railroad and Village Incorporated to operate on the Heber Valley Railroad in Heber City for the rest of the decade.
Wasatch Railroad Contractors was a railroad equipment repair business founded in 1999 by John E. Rimmasch in Heber, Utah. The company specialized in historic railcar and steam locomotive repairs, and it employed former Union Pacific Steam manager Steve Lee. The company’s headquarters was relocated to Cheyenne, Wyoming in 2005, and the company subsequently opened a steam locomotive shop and a railcar repair facility in Shoshoni, Wyoming.