Union Pacific Historical Society

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

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Passenger Cars

  • Car Names Numbers and Consists
    Robert J Wayner
    Published by Wayner Publications, 1972
    This book is a record of the streamlined and lightweight passenger-train cars built and operated in the United States. The Overland Route section covers all Union Pacific owned lightweight equipment plus cars owned by connecting railroads which were built for operation in Overland Route trains. All Aerotrain, Talgo, Train X and Turbotrain. (Contains 32 pages on UP passenger Trains).
  • Night Trains – The Pullman System in the Golden Years of American Rail Travel
    Peter T. Maiken
    Published by The John Hopkins University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-8018-4503-3. Night Trains is organized geographically – mostly by states. The main focus is on late heavyweight and streamliner eras, from 1920 to 1955.
  • Passenger Car Library, Volume 7
    David Randall
    Covers UP, MP and Wabash Budd built passenger cars
  • Steam Steel & Limiteds – A Saga of the Great Varnish
    William W. Kratville
    Published by Kratville Publications 1967.
  • Streamliners A History of Railroad Icon
    Mike Schafer
    Published by MBI 160pp, 2002. Santa Fe’s Chiefs, Rock Island’s Rockets, and Union Pacific’s City of Salina pop from the pages in lavish color. Original brochures, time tables, and dining car menus, plus coverage of interior design, rolling stock, and operations, deliver a striking tribute to these magnificent passenger trains.
  • The Official Pullman-Standard Library: Selected Heavyweight Cars
    W D Randall
    RPC Publications; 1995 (Contains about twenty pages on UP passenger cars.)
  • The Official Pullman-Standard Library, Vol. 13, Union Pacific
    W. David Randall & William G. Anderson
    1993, RPC Publications, Godfrey, Ill. 216 pp. Photos and diagrams of P-S built passenger equipment. Includes M-10000 through M-10006 streamliners.
  • The Official Pullman-Standard Library: Vol 14 UP 1937-1958"
    W D Randall & W G Anderson
    RPC Publications; 1993
  • The Overland Limited
    Lucius Beebe
    Published by Howell-North Books, 1963
  • UNION PACIFIC; BUSINESS CARS 1870-1991
    Barger, Ralph L.
    Sykesville 1992 Greenberg First Edition Quarto/208pp B&W&C photos & illus; diagram eps:
  • Union Pacific’s M-10000 and the Early Streamliner Era 1934-1941
    Thomas R. Lee
    Published by The Union Pacific Historical Society, 2012. ISBN 978-1-932704-31-0. The definitive book on this radical period in UP passenger train development. Written by Thomas R. Lee, noted Union Pacific historian and author of Turbines Westward. Edited by John Signor, editor emeritus of the Union Pacific Historical Society Streamliner, and distinguished author. Hardcover 11X8 in., extensively illustrated.
  • Union Pacific Passenger Equipment
    1985, Harbor Mist Publications, Columbus, Neb. 128 pp. Photos, diagrams. Listing of post-wooden passenger equipment, numbers, dispositions. Includes heavyweights, motocars, articulated and trainset equipment, lightweights, railway service and business cars, maintenance of way and proposed equipment. July 7, 1987 correction and update sheet.
  • Union Pacific Railroad – Photo Archive: Passenger Trains of the City Fleet
    John Kelly
    Published by Iconografix, 128pp,2009. In 1934 Union Pacific premiered the first lightweight, streamlined passenger train, calling it “Tomorrow’s Train Today.” The tiny brown-and-yellow speedster offered hope for America’s future during the Great Depression. Later renamed City of Salina, the train was the beginning of Union Pacific’s City Fleet of streamliners including the City of Los Angeles, City of San Francisco, City of Portland, City of Denver and Challenger, departing from Chicago and serving all the West. Maps, timetables, travel brochures, and advertising are featured.
  • Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Cars, Vol. 1, 1950-1964
    G.B. Davies & Associates
    1976, Omaha, Neb. 333 pp. Photos and diagrams.
  • Union Pacific Railroad Passenger Cars, Vol. 2, 1940-1949
    G.B. Davies & Associates
    1977, Omaha, Neb.
  • Union Pacific Streamliners
    Harold E. Ranks and William W. Kratville
    Published by Kratville Publications 1974, 592 pages.This collector’s item is the story of the Union Pacific Streamliners including the 49er, Treasure Island Special, the City Trains and “streamlined” McKeen cars. Also included are 43 timetables, 17 menus, 73 diagrams of power units and cars, in addition to a 56,000 word text and 1200 photos. One of the finest Union Pacific books of all time.
  • Union Pacific’s Challenger: An Unusual Passanger Train, 1935-1971
    Patrick C. Dorin
    TLC Publishing 2001, 80pp Soft Cover. For the first time, detailed coverage of the Union Pacific/Chicago & Northwestern passenger trains tells the entire story of this innovative line. Complete with coaches and tourist sleepers, the UP and C&NW in 1935 inaugurated a transcontinental train tailored to middle-class passengers. On its new line, UP provided stewardess-nurses, special women’s coaches, distinctive dining on special china, lounges, and other amenities normally associated with the best first-class trains. Read how the trains expanded into a fleet, despite the soft passenger market.
  • Union Pacific’s Streamliners (Great Passenger Trains)
    Joe Welsh
    Published by Voyager Press 2008, 160pp. This authoritative, illustrated history chronicles the trains that helped transform rail travel in America: Union Pacific Railroad’s streamliners. Award-winning rail author Joe Welsh examines the fleet of “city” trains launched by UP beginning in 1934–trains that connected Chicago to their namesakes, from Portland to Los Angeles to Denver, with revolutionary equipment and diesel motive power on breakneck schedules. A wealth of images depicts these trains along their transcontinental routes and captures the opulent furnishings and impeccable service that distinguished one of America’s premier passenger lines.
  • UP Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment
    Lloyd Stagner and Robert J. Yanosey
    1993 Morning Sun Books Inc., Edison, N.J. ISBN 1-878887-26-2. 128 pages. Collection of color work by company photographers, 1940s through 1960s, from UP Museum collection.
  • UP Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment. Volume 2.
    Schmitz, Lou
    Edison. Morning Sun Books. 1996.300 photos, 128 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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