Steam in 1945?

[Anonymous]

I'm going to model the Union Pacific in 1945 so I can include my two favorite locos ( Big Boy and Challenger) in the era they were operating. But aside from them, was there anymore steam locomotives in 1945 on the UP? Another question is what type of diesels should I use?

[AltonFan]

I would gather that the UP was still using steam for 90% or more of their operations.

Most roads, especially the really big ones, weren't able to begin full-scale dieselization until the 1946-1948 time frame.

[vsmith]

As for diesels you can use the City of Los Angeles, there high cab long nose crack streamliner started operation around 1938, but not the M-10000... it got scrapped during the war.

[joseph2]

4-8-4's come to mind.

[cacole]

Practically every type of steam engine made was still running in 1945 on every major railroad. Mikados, Mountains, 0-4-0, 0-6-0, etc. were very much still in use on the UP. A good history of UP motive power are the publicity movies produced by the UP at their Cheyenne shops and later released on VHS tapes by Pentrex, called "Last of the Giants." Railroads did not begin to dieselize in earnest until after 1948 because they had all been forced to purchase new steam engines during World War II and many of these engines were still relatively new when the war ended in 1945.

[Anonymous]

I know they also had some 2-10-2's......as I just saw one of them in their Cheyenne Roundhouse :) (Eat your hearts out.....hehehehhe)

[dknelson]

The UP had a large fleet of 2-8-0s that lasted to the end of steam in the 1950s, and in 1945 relatively few if any wheel arrangements would have been totally displaced by diesels. A fair number of these 2-8-0s are preserved.
A properly maintained steam locomotive could have a useful life of 50 years, even more, assuming it was not otherwise useless (the fate of 4-4-0s and some 4-4-2s was not that they wore out so much as that they were ill equipped to handle steel versus wood passenger cars). But even that did not prevent a few 4-4-0s from lingering on into the 1950s, assuming they had a purpose. And some railroads like the Pennsy kept some engines on the roster realizing their historical nature.
There were some railroads that were steam-free by 1950 but UP was not one of them by a long shot.
Dave Nelson
Now if you had asked about 1955 then you might need a UP roster to figure out what was

[Anonymous]

dknelson,

One 4-4-0 in particular was one used by Strasburg RR in Lancaster Pa, that engine lasted in tourist operation until the late 70's About that time, the firebox was deemed unsafe during the annual inspection and it was finally retired. I have ridden behind this as a child and it was one of the smoothest running engines in the stable.

The Union Pacific used 4-8-4's and anything bigger to haul freights up very long grades that were about .8-1.5% not too difficult to climb but over 60-100 miles it will weigh on the engine. Alot of other railroads did not convert to desiel until the mid 50's

Good Luck

Lee

[Sperandeo]

There's a very good book that goes into the shift from steam to diesel (and gas-turbine-electric) power on the UP in great detail. It's "Union Pacific Motive Power in Transition, 1936-1960" by Lloyd Stagner, published by the South Platte Press in 1993. In general what you learn from it is that the UP was very slow to replace steam except for its Streamliners and in yard service. There were no diesel freight engines on the UP at the start of 1945, and replacement of steam power on a large scale didn't really get going until 1947 and '48.

Another book, the "Guide to North American Steam Locomotives," compiled by George Drury, published by Kalmbach in 1993, includes a roster of UP steam locomotives showing 17 different wheel arrangements. There was a lot of variety, but depending on what part of the railroad you're looking at, you'd almost certainly see a preponderance of some types and few or none of many others. Big Boys, for example, didn't run between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, but 4-10-2s didn't run anywhere else.

so long,

Andy