Union Pacific Historical Society

In Memoriam. Robert Darwin passed away in Carmel Valley, CA on April 28, aged 96. Bob served on the UPHS Board of Directors 1987-1994, and he served as editor of The Streamliner 1992-1996. Darwin was a modeler par excellence; his 1961 super-detailed Big Boy remains a major milestone in model railroading.

Darwin designed and scratch-built prototype super-detailing parts and advised model development for brass model companies such as Overland, Challenger, Key and Coach Yard. His work set the standard for excellence and led to much more realistic offerings to the modeling community. Darwin’s extensive collection of UP drawings, documents, and photographs, as well as his large collection of books and magazines on railroading, was purchased from the Darwin estate by our banquet speaker at the Pasco convention, John Gray. John has graciously donated these materials to UPHS; our Archive Committee will be curating these materials. (Thank you, John!) Archival documents and photographs will make their way into the UPHS collection at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. We will have books from the Darwin estate for sale at future UPHS conventions.

We had a great time at the Pasco Convention! – The UPHS 2023 convention in Pasco, Washington, July 19-22, 2023, was great fun. Highlights for me were the Thursday night photo session on the YVT in Yakima and the Friday ride on the Joseph Branch through the remote portions of the Grande Ronde and Wallowa River Canyons. Next year, May 8-11, 2024, at the Southern California Railway Museum in Perris, CA, we will ride behind UP E8 942 and take night shots of a YVT photo freight. Hope to see you there! Rob L.

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Calendar Call It’s time to put together the 2024 UPHS calendar. Submissions of digital images for the calendar from anyone and everyone are welcome. E-mail small JPEGs of your favorite Union Pacific images to leachman@berkeley.edu with whatever caption information you have and an identification of the photographer. Please do not submit images you do not own. I will accept nominated images until September 15, whereupon I will select the images to appear in the calendar and get back to you to arrange submission of a large TIFF file (or a large JPEG if you do not have a TIFF) of each selected image. The completed calendar will be mailed to sustaining and preservation members along with the Fall 2024 issue of The Streamliner and will go on sale in the Company Store shortly after that time. Many thanks, Rob Leachman

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Summer issue of The Streamliner available now! – In this issue Cate Kratville-Wrinn provides an update on the restoration work on the 5511, 3985, and other historic UP equipment donated to Railroading Heritage of Midwest America. Rob Leachman provides an overview of the the fascinating history of UP’s Bend Branch in central Oregon, including the operations of both the Burlington Northern/BNSF and Union Pacific. In a new recurring column, retired dispatcher Rich Pennisi recalls an example of how sudden changes in the weather can have dramatic consequences, and the issue concludes with the archives column analyzing the train consist for the Advance Los Angeles Forwarder on May 15, 1972.  Available now at the company store!

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New Book on Camas Prairie Railroad!  – Carefully researched from railroad papers and interviews with employees, this book tells the full story of the Camas Prairie Railroad. This history presents the origins of the unique cooperation between the parent companies Union Pacific Railroad and Northern Pacific Railway, and details the many routes surveyed to the railroad’s namesake Camas Prairie and to the logging camp at Headquarters, Idaho. Includes maps of the many surveyed lines considered in Lapwai Canyon, site of the famous Halfmoon bridge. This 320-page hardbound book is complete with information on operations and equipment, maps of the full railroad and key points, and over 350 illustrations and photographs. Now available at the company store!

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New book on Cheyenne facilities! – A. J. Wolff and Jim Ehernberger have prepared this fine treatise on UP facilities in Cheyenne. This book is an invaluable source of information for modelers recreating UP’s Cheyenne facilities in various eras, and it will be appreciated by UP history buffs seeking to understand UP’s Cheyenne terminal operations over the years. Hard cover, 128 pages containing more than 200 black and white and color images. Historical details are provided in each caption regarding the structures, including shops, roundhouses, servicing tracks, freight yard, stores department, depot, tower A, stockyards, etc.. The book is available now in the company store.

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UPHS Archives at the American Heritage Center of the University of Wyoming – The American Heritage Center is developing a digital library of the images and diagrams in the UPHS Collection at AHC. This is a long-term, gradual process; only a fraction of our images are digitized at this point. A long-run goal is to develop an indexed, searchable digital library of small scans of our images for the benefit of our membership and others. Some of the completed small scans have been posted on-line by AHC. You can take a look at https://digitalcollections.uwyo.edu/luna/servlet/uwydbuwy~107~107.