Friday Mar 30 2007
Big UP GE’s
To end the work week, here are two slides of older UP freight power. First we see U28-C #2806 leaving Topeka, KS behind westbound in a cloud of dust over 30 years ago on 11/19/76.
When GE wanted to come up with an even larger locomotive for the UP to match EMD’s DD40AX, they designed the U50-C generating 5000 horsepower by putting the equivalent of two smaller 12-cylinder GE road units on a single frame. Sitting higher up and with virtually no nose, the engine crew could definitely see down the track ahead. Here we we see two U50-C’s with an SD24 B-unit in between undergoing an inspection in the yards at Kansas City, KS on 05/24/75.
These big units proved to have multiple problems, and were all removed from service the next year in 1976 and subsequently scrapped. Saturday morning I will be leaving early for a round trip to Norman, OK to attend a planning session for the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society’s convention this June in Oklahoma City. Stay tuned to see if I come back with a few pictures from the trip.
