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Union Pacific Northwest Steam

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  • Member since
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Union Pacific Northwest Steam
Posted by SPer on Friday, January 29, 2021 3:15 PM

Did any oil burning Union Pacific steam locomotives ran to Portland, OR in the 1930s and what wheel arrangement.

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Posted by selector on Friday, January 29, 2021 11:29 PM

I did a search, "1930's map,union pacific track system".  I looked at a couple of obvious examples rendered and saw no indiciation of trackage to Portland that was used by the Union Pacific or maintained by them for their use.

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Saturday, January 30, 2021 12:08 AM

Then where did UP's City of Portland terminate? The UP has a line running on the south bank of the Columbia river and uses a bridge just east of Portland for the line to Seattle.

As for SPer's question, the UP was required to use oil burning steam locomotives for the Yellowstone branch.

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Posted by rcdrye on Saturday, January 30, 2021 6:38 AM

UP used and uses the Oregon-Washington Railway and Navigation Railway line along the south bank of the Columbia. The line splits east of Portland with passenger trains following a line which today is pretty much followed by I-84 and Tri-Max to Union Station.  The line to Seattle was party shared with NP and GN

Because the line up the Columbia from Portland is relatively flat UP's smaller and mid-sized power such as Pacifics and Mikados predominated.  Hinkle Oregon was where the grades started and an engine change point where heavier power could be found.

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Posted by SPer on Monday, February 1, 2021 9:50 AM

I was talking about the oil burning steam locomotives that ran to Portland,OR in the 1930s such as 4-8-2s, etc

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, February 1, 2021 2:35 PM

Erik_Mag
Then where did UP's City of Portland terminate?

Or the Portland Rose?

I've seen a picture in Trains of 844, or 8444, on what was named as a  'Portland Rose' consist... for what it's worth, American Rails says the power was MT 4-8-2s and FEF 4-8-4s until dieselization.

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Posted by NP Eddie on Monday, February 8, 2021 4:25 PM

As information, the Oregon, River, and Navigation Company was fully mergered into the Union Pacific about 1936 or so and that is how the UP got into Portland, Oregon. I took the Portland section of the EB to MSP about two years ago.It was beautiful to see the broad Columbia River from the Washington side and see the UP on the Oregon side.  A great trip!

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