Welcome to the Union Pacific Historical Society! Founded in 1984, … Read More
News at the Top
Dear UPHS Members,
At our fall board meeting in December your board decided due to increasing costs that the dues need to increase to cover ever-increasing expenses. We discussed the financial condition of the UPHS and decided to raise the dues with the basic dues being $50 effective April 1, 2025. A notification was supposed to be sent to all member’s last fall. Obviously, that did not happen. Then on March 30, 2025, you received an email reminding you of the dues increase or you saw it on Facebook. As President of the UPHS, I find this unacceptable, and I apologize for this situation happening. I have made an executive decision and told the board that we are deferring the dues increase until September 1, 2025. I am working hard to make sure this does not happen again.
For you, the members, this means that we will continue to renew at the old rate. For you the newest members, this means, you can continue to renew your membership for several years at the old rate until September 1, 2025. You may want to take advantage of this delay to renew your membership at the old rate until September 1st at a savings to you.
I want to thank each and every one of you for being a member of the Union Pacific Historical Society.
Remember, we are here to serve you and if you have any questions, or concerns, please feel free to contact one of your UPHS board members.
Sincerely,
Larry Tiffany
President UPHS
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To our loyal Members: After 12 years of holding the line on dues, the Board of Directors has voted to increase the dues as shown on the table below. They will be effective April 1, 2025 but current subscribers are welcome to renew and extend their subscriptions at the current rate until then. Note that Canadian and International subscriptions will now referred to as Non-US Regular or Non-US Sustaining subscription. Our new third party mailing service groups all foreign subscriptions regardless of destination into one “cost” bucket and UPHS pays a flat rate for foreign postage.
Regular-US. $50
Sustaining-US $70
Youth-US. $40
Non-US Regular. $70
Non-US Sustaining. $90
Portland Rose. $100
Los Angeles Limited $250
Overland Limited. $500
Golden Spike Limited $1000+
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To our Canadian subscribers….per the United States Postal Website:
“Mail Suspension: Canada
Effective November 29, 2024, international mail service to Canada is temporarily suspended, due to the strike of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers.
The third party postal delivery service of the Streamliner is holding on to Streamliner Issue 38.4 for delivery at a later date when the strike in Canada is resolved.
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Everyone please check out the Company Store — Under the tab for “Books & Magazines” there is now an area called “Used Books”. Generous donations of books by members and member estates have made some classic old books available for sale. Many are very rare and in good to excellent condition. These books are not limited to Union Pacific Railroad either as many railroads are represented in different eras. About 40 books are listed now and as time allows the list will expand. The prices are very good and shipping is added at the time of purchase. Purchases here will help support UPHS goals and projects with making more historical information available online.
UPHS Commemorative Boxcar. Model Railroaders: Pacific Western Rail Systems offers 50-foot c5077 cubic-foot single-door UP boxcars emblazoned with the UPHS logo. The price is $41.95 (HO) and $29.98 (N) per car plus shipping and handling. This price is subject to change in January account potential tariffs. One hundred total were produced, 50 of each scale, so hurry if you want one! PWRS also offers this car without the UPHS logo. For HO scale go to Pacific Western Rail Systems to order. For N scale go to Pacific Western Rail Systems to order.
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!
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.
American Heritage Center – The American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming in Laramie is featured the UPHS collection on the home page of their web site in February. Go to https://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/ [February 4, 2020]
Links have been updated under the Resources tab. In particular, a link has been added directing you to the Union Pacific Steam Club, where you can sign up and keep up to date with the steam program and its excursions. [February 27, 2019]
James L Ehernberger and Marc Entze, Union Pacific Motor Cars – Book – Coming Soon
During the twentieth century, the Union Pacific Railroadgained worldwide renown for the development and operation of high output locomotives powered by steam, gas-electric,and the internal combustion engine. What is less commonlyknown is that the railroad embraced the internal combustion engine shortly after the turn of the century—just 36 years after the driving of the Golden Spike—in the form of the gasoline-powered passenger motor car. Although overshadowed by later advancements, the passenger motor car, of which many design elements would later be adapted to the railroad’s famous Streamliners, were the inaugural application of internal combustion technology on the Union Pacific. The culmination of decades of research, this liberally-illustrated volume seeks to tell the definitive story of these unique entires to Union Pacific’s nationwide fleet.
Coming soon from the Union Pacific Historical Society.
From the Business Car
Well, it is time for a new copy of the Streamliner and that means it is time to share my views and thoughts with you, the members. As President, I hear lots of things from you the members along with your issues from other board members. We at UPHS should be happy to have a live and vibrant operating railroad we love, instead of a defunct fallen flag. Some believe the UPHS era should have ended in 1982. That is impossible with an active railroad. UP recently demolished the historic 1953 water tank at Harriman and that is current history. Some members have suggested that our conventions should be held exclusively in Omaha, North Platte, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, and Ogden. I have been a member for 40 years and visited all those places when they were still intact operationally. Sadly, except for North Platte, none of those places have anything left from their prime, so there is nothing to see or do there. North Platte offers many attractions, including trains, but UP prohibits access to their property there. With all of that said it means that we have to go off the UP mainline to other locations off the mainline and or have conventions with other historical societies to have successful conventions and provide you with the members with things to see and do. Please consider coming to the UPHS 2025 Convention in Silvis IL this September and see what is happening to several UP-steam locomotives, passenger cars and cabooses in the old Rock Island shop facility. In addition, the UP dda40x #6936 is operational there at the yard.
We have a fairly new editor who is really good, and he is putting out a better-quality magazine since we changed over to White River Publications. I know some of you are not happy with the articles that are being published. I am seeking information regarding additional material that was meant to be delivered to your editor upon assuming his position. However, it is not the editors job to create articles for the Streamliner, but rather to take material from you the members and other and turn it into an article, but better yet for you the members to write articles about your favorite UP subject matter and allow our editor to finesse it into a wonderful article in the Streamliner.
The board’s goal is to maintain society’s financial stability, provide members with four issues of Streamliner magazine annually, and organize a convention that offers information on railroad history and the Union Pacific.
We, the board, need your help to do all of these things. We need you to maintain your membership, buy the books we publish and attend the conventions we have.
We are making changes at UPHS, and I hope you will like them. If you have not been to the website lately, I would encourage you to look at it. Major changes are coming soon. We will be posting images via SmugMug on the website and you can purchase them from SmugMug. I am working to get this year’s convention registration to be done online.
As president, I ask your patience, your comments and suggestions and work with the board to make the UPHS be all it can be.
Sincerely,
Larry Tiffany
President UPHS
As always, I would be glad to hear your suggestions about how to improve the Society, just email me at president@uphs.org.
Union Pacific Historical Society Endowment Fund
The Union Pacific Historical Society Endowment Fund supports the UPHS Archive Collection at the University of Wyoming – American Heritage Center. The UPHS Board of Directors voted in September 2020 to establish this new UPHS Endowment Fund through the University of Wyoming Foundation utilizing their 501(c)(3) non-profit standing. The University of Wyoming Foundation actively manages a portfolio of over 1,500 endowment funds that jointly support a wide range of activities at both the University of Wyoming and the adjoining American Heritage Center at Laramie. The University of Wyoming Foundation has existing staff well trained to handle any tax-deductible donations, plus will also generate and provide tax documentation to all donors. Utilizing the University of Wyoming Foundation staff ensures continuity of the management and specified use of the UPHS Endowment Fund should the UPHS cease to exist.
The targeted purpose of the UPHS Endowment Fund is to permanently fund archival preservation and management activities of the current (and future additions to the) UPHS Archive Collection now at American Heritage Center, as well as support other railroad-related transportation collections at AHC. From its founding, the American Heritage Center at Laramie has prided itself on being accessible to everyone – from the elementary school students learning about primary resources, to the college students researching their thesis, to the professional historians performing primary research for writing up their findings, to a broad cross-section of the public following their passions. The UPHS Archive Collection inside AHC in late 2020 measures more than 300 cubic feet of our physical collection and includes over 100 gigabytes of preserved digital materials. The primary eventual goal is to establish consistent funding for a full-time employee inside the American Heritage Center to manage the UPHS Archive Collection along with other railroad collections held at AHC. Details of the very specific permissible uses of the UPHS Endowment Fund are available on the UPHS.org website.
The strength of the Union Pacific Historical Society has always been the strong involvement and support of the membership. On behalf of the UPHS Board of Directors, as President I am now asking again for your support with contributing toward growing this new UPHS Endowment Fund.
Online Donation Instructions:
- Go to: www.uwyo.edu/giveonline
- Enter the amount you wish to donate.
- Select “Single Payment,” “Multiple Payments,” or “Recurring Payments“
- Select “View Individual UW Funds“
- Select “Other Fund Not Listed (Please Specify)“
- Click “Continue“
- Enter “UPHS Fund” for the name of the fund.
- Enter A21UPHS for the Appeal Code
- Click “Next” and complete checkout
You may mail your donation for the newly-formed UPHS Endowment Fund:
View/Download Donation Form and View More Information (pdf file)
Mail To:
University of Wyoming Foundation
Attn: UPHS Endowment Fund
222 S. 22nd St.
Laramie, WY 82070
Bank routing number and wire transfer information is available should you need it. Contact 307 766-6300 or 888 831-7795 for this information. Make checks out to “University of Wyoming Foundation” with “UPHS Endowment Fund” in memo line.
Greg Gardner, President – Union Pacific Historical Society
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