Union Pacific Historical Society

Dedicated to the preservation of the history of the Union Pacific Railroad

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General History

  • Colorado Rail Annual No. 10: Narrow Gauge to Central City and Silver Plume
    Cornellius W. Hauk
    Colorado Railroad Museum, 1974, 220 pages, over 300 photos, hardcover. A history of the first narrow gauge to push west into the Rockies. Begun in 1872 as the Colorado Central, it became part of the Union Pacific and eventually the Colorado & Southern. Built to serve the mining communities of Gilpin and Clear Creek counties, its famed Georgetown Loop became a popular tourist attraction.
  • Colorado Rail Annual No. 15: Idaho & Montana Issue
    Colorado Railroad Museum, 1981, 316 pages, over 200 photos, rosters and maps, hardcover. Mallory Hope Ferrell is a history of the Ogden-Butte line of the Union Pacific. U.P. Montana by Cornelius W. Hauck is a profusely illustrated story of the operations on the Butte line after standard gauging. Gilmore & Pittsburgh by Rex Myers covers a virtually unknown standard gauge line in Idaho’s Salmon River country.
  • Colorado Rail Annual No. 18: Railroading In The Rockies Half a Century Ago
    Colorado Railroad Museum, 1990, 240 pages, over 300 photographs, acid free paper, hardcover. In the Mountains of Utah by Jackson Thode and James L. Ozment. Early construction on the Rio Grande in the Utah desert and across Soldier Summit. General Palmer’s Other Narrow Gauge by Robert A. LeMassena. Mexican National narrow gauge. The Denver Post’s Frontier Days Special by Richard Kreck and Kenton Forrest. The Greatest Train by Alexis McKinney. A personal reminiscence of the Frontier Days. Union Pacific’s Articulated Steam Power by R.H. Kindig and R.C. Farewell.
  • Dreams, Visions & Visionaries: Colorado Rail Annual No. 20
    Colorado Railroad Museum, 1993, 240 pages, over 300 photographs, acid free paper, hardcover. Rio Grande in the Utah desert and across Soldier Summit. The Denver Post’s Frontier Days Special by Richard Kreck and Kenton Forrest. The Greatest Train by Alexis McKinney. A personal reminiscence of the Frontier Days. General Palmer’s Other Narrow Gauge by Robert A. LeMassena. Mexican National narrow gauge. Union Pacific’s Articulated Steam Power by R.H In the Mountains of Utah by Jackson Thode and James L. Ozment. Early construction on the. Kindig and R.C. Farewell.
  • Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
    David Bain
    1999
  • Epic Of The Overland An Account Of The Building Of The Central And Union Pacific Railroad
    Fulton, Robert Lardin
    Los Angeles: N.A.Kovach, 1954
  • Fifty Years of Union Pacific Steam Excursions
    Lloyd Stagner & James Reisdorff
    2003, 8.5 x 11, soft cover, 64 pages 63 photos, South Platte Press
  • Guidebook to the Western United States- The Overland Route
    US Govt. Printing Office, 1916.
    For those interested in geology and regional history along the historic UP main line, it is a “must”.
  • History Of The Union Pacific
    Trottman, Nelson: NY: Augustus M. Kelley
    Pub., 1923. 1966 reprint
  • History of the Union Pacific Coal Mines 1868-1940
    1940. The Colonial Press. Omaha, NE : 265 pages
  • History Of The Union Pacific Railway
    White, Henry Kirke: Chicago, UC Press,1895
    129 pages, index, 14 charts (2 folded)
  • How We Built the Union Pacific Railway
    Grenville M. Dodge
    Bibliographical Center for Research, 218pp, 2009. The Shelf2Life Trains & Railroads Collection provides a unique opportunity for researchers and railroad enthusiasts to easily access and explore pre-1923 titles focusing on the history, culture and experience of railroading. From the revolution of the steam engine to the thrill of early travel by rail, railroads opened up new opportunities for commerce, American westward expansion and travel. These books provide a unique view of the impact of this type of transportation on our urban and rural societies and cultures, while allowing the reader to share the experience of early railroading in a new and unique way. The Trains & Railroads Collection offers a valuable perspective on this important and fascinating aspect of modern industrialization.
  • Iron Horses to Promontory Railroad: Central Pacific – Union Pacific
    Gearld M. Best
    Golden West Books 1969, 207 pages
  • Kansas Central Narrow Gauge Slim Rails Across the Midlands
    I.E. Quastler
    South Platte Press 1999, 104 pages
  • Life And Adventures Of Sam Bass – The Notorious Union Pacific And Texas Train Robber
    Bass, Sam
    Dallas: Dallas Commerical Steam Pnt, 1878. 1st Reprint
  • List Of References To Literature Relating To The Union Pacific System
    Library Bureau of Railway Economics
    Crofton reprint 1922 original ed. 299 pages
  • Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
    Stephen E Ambrose
    Simon & Schuster 2001, 432pp Soft Cover. Building a transcontinental railroad, writes the prolific historian Stephen Ambrose, was second only to the abolition of slavery on Lincoln’s presidential agenda. Through an ambitious program of land grants and low-interest government loans, he encouraged entrepreneurs such as California’s “Big Four”–Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford–to take on the task of stringing steel rails from ocean to ocean. The real work of doing so, of course, was on the shoulders of immigrant men and women, mostly Chinese and Irish. These often-overlooked actors and what a contemporary called their “dreadful vitality” figure prominently in Ambrose’s narrative, alongside the great financiers and surveyors who populate the standard textbooks.
  • Pioneering the Union Pacific, A Reappraisal of the Builders of the Railroad
    Ames, Charles Edgar
    Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1st, 1969, 591 pages
  • Powder River Coal Trains
    Jeremy Taylor
    A pictorial look at the huge unit trains and modern highcapacity railroads that serve America’s largest and newest coal mining operations. The book examines the transportation of the coal from the mines to the power plants in photographs and detailed text. Detailed charts list all the power plants served and accurate maps give the reader unparalled comprehension of this massive operation. 104 pages featuring 130 Color and B/W photographs. 1997.
  • The Deschutes River Railroad War.
    Leon Speroff
    Arnica Publishing Inc.. 2006. 240 pages. Tracing the geological and railroad history of the Pacific Northwest, Leon Speroff uniquely evokes the Age of the Railroad in his newst book, The Deschutes River Railroad War. With intricate detail, expert understanding and amusing anedotes, he brings to life this facinating true tale of the race to expand railroad service from the Columbia River up the Deschutes River to Bend, Oregon. When the two railroad barons, James J. Hill of the Great Northern and Edward H. Harriman of the Union Pacific, both set their sights on the Deschutes River Canyon for building a railway to Bend, neither man could have foreseen the massive expenditure of money, time, energy and human lives that characterized their mad rush to the finish. At the heart of this gripping story is the essence of the American West and the magnates, workers, immigrants and settlers whose impact on the region would usher the age of railroad transportation into the Twentieth century.
  • The First Transcontinental Railroad; Central Pacific Union Pacific.
    Galloway, John Debo
    New York. Simmons-Boardman. 1950. 319 pages
  • The History Of The Union Pacific; America’s Great Transcontinental Railroad
    Cahill, Mary & Lynn Piade
    NY: Crescent, 1989. 127 pages
  • The History of the Union Pacific in Cheyenne
    Robert Darwin, published by Express Press Ltd. 1987.
    It contains 386 pages. This coffee table style book contains an excellent overview of the Union Pacific’s rich history in Cheyenne with a great compliment of photos to support it.
  • The Life and Legend of E.H. Harriman
    Maury Klein
  • The Union Pacific Drama
    Robert P. Olmsted
    2003 Images, portraits and impressions of Union Pacific locomotives and trains between 1950 and 2003. From steam, E’s and F’s through GP30’s and SD40’s to 6000 HP units. 88 pages, 16 color
  • Union Pacific: A Decade of Transition
    Wayne Monger
    Pub: Pacific RailNews/Pentrex, 1996
  • Union Pacific Across Sherman Hill
    George Drury
    Kalmbach Pub. 1999 128 pages
  • Union Pacific Challenger 1935 – 1971
    Patrick C. Dorin
    The story of the innovative Challenger locomotive which was a test bed for modern passenger operations. Includes interior and exterior photos of the cars, motive power, operations, timetables, rosters. Perfect for UP and passenger train enthusiasts. Over 100 B&W with some color photos. Soft Cover.
  • Union Pacific Country
    Robert G. Athearn, published by the University of Nebraska Press1976
    386 pages. This book covers the Union Pacific’s beginnings through its receivership purchase in 1897.
  • Union Pacific: Crossing Sherman Hill
    B. Arnold
    South Platte Press, A narative of UPRR employees who rode the rails across southern Wyoming.
  • Union Pacific Equipment List & Renumbering June, 1885
    James Ehernberger
  • Union Pacific: Hell On Wheels!
    Carson, John
    Santa Fe, Press of the Territorian, 1968. 36 pages, illustrations, wraps.
  • Union Pacific. Official Color Photography. Book I
    LeMassena, Robert A., and Robert J. Yanosey
    1993, Morning Sun Books, Edison, NJ. ISBN 1-878887-25-4. 128 pages.
  • Union Pacific. Official Color Photography Book II
    Schmitz, Lou, and Robert J. Yanosey
    1999, Morning Sun Books, Edison, NJ. ISBN 1-58248-005-2. 128 pages.
  • Union Pacific Railroad
    Joe Welsh and Kevin J. Holland Voyager Press, 2010, 160pp, Hard Cover. This history follows the Union Pacific from its formation through such landmark events as the completion of the transcontinental railroad and right up to the railroad’s current role in the continent’s current transportation infrastructure. Fully illustrated with historical and modern images, the book recaptures the drama of the railroad’s perilous formative years, its weathering of economic disasters like the Great Depression, its boom times during World War II, the subsequent decline of passenger services, and the UP’s role in the rail industry’s merger-mania from the 1970s through the 1990s.
  • Union Pacific Railroad Color History
    Brian Solomon
  • Union Pacific Railroad System Employee Timetables, February 1948
    Union Pacific Historical Society
  • Union Pacific Rails to the Mines, The Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Ry.
    Thornton Waite
    1999, 64 pages UP’s Murphy branch from Nampa to Murphy, Idaho
  • Union Pacific The Building Of The First Transcontinental Railroad
    Hogg, Garry
    New York: Walker & Co., 1969.
  • Union Pacific, Volume I 1862-1893
    Maury Klein
    2006, University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-4459-9. 797 pages. This volume covers the Union Pacific from inception up to receivership in 1893.
  • Union Pacific Volume II 1894-1969
    Maury Klein
    2006, University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-4460-5. 654 pages. This volume covers the Union Pacific coming out of receivership with its sale on the steps of the Omaha Freight House to the railroad it evolved to in 1969.
  • Union Pacific Volume III 1969 to the Present
    Maury Klein
    2011, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-536989-2. 508 pages. Contemporary history of Union Pacific.
  • Union Pacific West From Leavenworth
    I.E. Quastler
    South Platte Press 1999, 88 pages
  • Western Incidents Connected With The Union Pacific Railroad Seymour
    Silas
    Reprint D. Van Nostrand New York, NY 1970
  • Westward to Promontory
    text by Barry B. Combs: historic photos by Andrew J. Russell
    Pictorial documentary of the building of the UP. : Softcover 79 pages
  • Westward To Promontory. Building The Union Pacific Across The Plains And Mountains
    Jackson, Samuel B.
    New York. Doubleday & Company. 1976. 348 pages

Founded in 1984, the Union Pacific Historical Society (UPHS) is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the history of the Union Pacific Railroad from its beginning in 1862 to the operation as it is today. The society is not supported by, or affiliated with the railroad other than the preservation of its rich and colorful history.

Those of you searching for UPRR employment records or genealogy information please go the Genealogy tab under the Resources section of this website.

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