| Union Pacific Railroad | |
|---|---|
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System map (trackage rights in purple) |
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| Reporting mark | UP |
| Locale | United States from Chicago, Illinois, and cities along the Mississippi River to the Pacific coast |
| Dates of operation | 1862–present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | 1400 Douglas Street Omaha, Nebraska |
The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) (NYSE: UNP), headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman.[1][2]
UP's route map covers most of the central and western United States west of Chicago and New Orleans. As of December 31, 2008 UP operates on 32,012 miles (51,518 km) of track, of which it owns outright 26,171 miles (42,118 km).[3] Both numbers represent the highest amount of any railroad currently operating in the United States.[4][5] It has achieved this size as a result of purchasing a large number of other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago and North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Rio Grande). Currently, Union Pacific owns 26% of Ferromex while Grupo Mexico owns the remaining 74%.
UP's chief railroad competitor is the BNSF Railway, which covers much of the same territory.
The original company, prior to later uniting with the Central Pacific Railroad, was incorporated on July 1, 1862 under an act of congress entitled Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The act was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, and it provided for the construction of railroads from the Missouri river to the Pacific as a war measure for the preservation of the Union. It was constructed westwardly from Council Bluffs to meet the Central Pacific line, which was constructed eastwardly from San Francisco bay. The line was constructed primarily by Irish labor who had learned their craft during the recent Civil War.[6] The two lines were joined together at Promontory Summit, Utah, fifty-three miles west of Ogden on May 10, 1869, hence creating the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Under the guidance of its dominant stockholder Dr. Thomas Clark Durant, the namesake of the city of Durant, Iowa, the first rails were laid in Omaha, Nebraska. Subsequently, UP took over three Mormon-built roads: the Utah Central Rail Road extending south from Ogden, Utah, to Salt Lake City, the Utah Southern Railroad extending south from Salt Lake City into the Utah Valley, and the Utah Northern Railroad extending north from Ogden into Idaho; and it built or absorbed local lines that gave it access to Denver and to Portland, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest. It acquired the Kansas Pacific (originally called the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, though in essence a separate railroad). It also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas (both parts of the Union Pacific, Denver and Gulf Railway).
UP was entangled in the Crédit Mobilier scandal, exposed in 1872, that involved bribing congressmen and stock speculations. Its early troubles led to bankruptcy during the 1870s, the result of which was reorganization of the Union Pacific Railroad as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24, 1880, with its dominant stockholder being Jay Gould. The new company also declared bankruptcy, in 1893, but emerged on July 1, 1897, reverting to the original name, Union Pacific Railroad. Such minor changes in corporate titles were a common result of reorganization after bankruptcy among American railroads. This period saw the UP sell off some of its holdings; the Union Pacific Railway, Central Branch became the Central Branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the Southern Branch was acquired by the newly-incorporated Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad in 1870. However, the UP soon recovered, and was strong enough to take control of Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in 1901 and then was ordered in 1913 by the U.S. Supreme Court to surrender control of the same. UP also founded the Sun Valley resort in Idaho in 1936, the UP engineering department in Omaha designed the first ski chairlift that summer. The MP and MKT both came back into the UP fold in the 1980s. On September 11, 1996 UP finally acquired SP in a transaction envisioned nearly a century earlier.
The headquarters of the railroad operation of the UP has been in Omaha, Nebraska, since its inception. Currently they are housed in the Union Pacific Center, completed in 2003. Other important UP facilities in Omaha have included the Union Pacific Railroad Omaha Shops Facility and the Harriman Dispatch Center. The corporate headquarters of the Union Pacific Corporation were located in New York City from its initial founding in the 1860s until Drew Lewis became CEO in the mid-1980s, at which time they were relocated to Bethlehem PA, and then later to Dallas TX; the corporate headquarters of the Union Pacific Corporation are now located also in Omaha.[7]
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | NYSE: UNP NASDAQ: UNP OTC Markets Group: UNP |
| Industry | Railroad |
| Founded | July 1, 1862 |
| Headquarters | Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Area served | United States |
| Key people | James Young (Chairman, President and CEO) |
| Revenue | US$ 16.965 billion (2010)[8] |
| Operating income | US$ 4.981 billion (2010)[8] |
| Net income | US$ 2.780 billion (2010)[8] |
| Total assets | US$ 43.008 billion (2010)[8] |
| Total equity | US$ 17.763 billion (2010)[8] |
| Employees | 42,884 (2010)[8] |
| Website | UP.com |
In 1986 UP purchased Overnite Transportation, a fairly major less-than-truckload shipping carrier. UP divested itself of Overnite Trucking through an IPO in 2004.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, UP purchased several non-railroad companies, such as Skyway Freight Systems of Watsonville, California, and United States Pollution Control, Inc., but by 2000, following the appointment of Richard K. Davidson as CEO, it had divested itself of all non-railroad properties except for Overnite Trucking, and its holding company for logistical technology, Fenix Enterprises.
The Union Pacific Corporation (not the railroad itself) was located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania until 1997, when Richard K. Davidson announced that it was moving to Dallas in September of that year. Two years later, on the sale of Skyway and the impending divestiture of Overnite, the UP corporate headquarters moved to Omaha to join the headquarters of the railroad.
Primarily concentrated west of the Mississippi River, UP directly owns and operates track in 23 U.S. states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For administrative purposes, its network is divided into 21 “service units”: Chicago, Council Bluffs, Commuter Operations, Denver, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Livonia, Los Angeles, North Little Rock, North Platte, Portland, Roseville, San Antonio, Saint Louis, Tucson, Twin Cities, Utah, and Wichita (incomplete list). Each “service unit” is further divided into many different subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile (480 km) mainlines to 10-mile (16 km) branch-lines.
Not including second, third, and fourth main line track, yard track, and siding track, UP directly operated some 36,206 miles (58,364 kilometers) of track, as of March 24, 2000. When the additional tracks are counted, the amount of track that it has direct control over rises to 54,116 miles (87,091 kilometers).
UP has also been able to reach agreements with competing railroads, mostly BNSF, that allow the railroad to operate its own trains with its own crews on hundreds of miles of competing railroads’ main tracks.
Furthermore, due to the practice of locomotive leasing and sharing undertaken by the Class I railroads, UP locomotives occasionally show up on competitors' tracks throughout the United States, Canada and most recently, Mexico.
In California, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) maintains a database of crossings.
Because of the large size of UP, hundreds of yards throughout its rail network are needed to effectively handle the daily transport of goods from one place to another. To reduce overall emissions, Union Pacific is acquiring a new generation of environmentally friendly locomotives for use in Los Angeles basin rail yards.
Some of the more prominent rail facilities in UP’s system include:
Hump yards work by using a small hill over which cars are pushed, before being released down a slope and switched automatically into cuts of cars, ready to be made into outbound trains. UP's active humps include:[10]
Union Pacific maintains a functioning police department staffed with Special Agents with jurisdiction over crimes against the railroad. Special Agents have federal and state arrest powers and can enforce laws even off railroad property in most states where the railroad operates. Special Agents typically investigate major incidents such as derailments, sabotage, grade crossing accidents, and hazardous material accidents and minor issues such as trespassing on the railroad right of way, vandalism/graffiti, and theft of company property or customer product.
Special Agents often coordinate with local, state, and federal law enforcement on issues concerning the railroad and are dispatched nationally through UP Headquarters in Omaha.
The Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, houses one of the oldest corporate collections in the nation. It includes artifacts, photographs, and documents that trace the development of the railroad and the American West.
The completion of Union Pacific’s transcontinental railroad in 1869 helped shape the landscape and geography and brought tens of thousands of westward-bound immigrants to the American West.
The museum’s collection features weapons from the late 19th and 20th centuries, outlaw paraphernalia, a sampling of the immigrants’ possessions, and a photograph collection comprising more than 500,000 images.[11]
In 2009, the America’s Power Factuality Tour stopped at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum to report on the railroad’s role in generating electricity in the United States.[12]
UP's basic paint scheme for its diesel-electric locomotives is the oldest still in use by a major railroad. The middle two-thirds of the locomotive body is painted Armour Yellow, so-named because it was the color used by the Armour meat company. A thin band of red divides this from the Harbor Mist Gray (a fairly light gray) used for the body and roof above that point. A red line is also painted at the bottom of the locomotive body, but this color has gradually become yellow as new Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations for reflectorized tape came into effect in 2005; the trucks, underframe, fuel tanks and everything else beneath that line are also Harbor Mist Gray. Lettering and numbering are in red, with black outlines. Some locomotives (historically passenger locomotives, and some recent units from 2000 on) have white-outlined blue "wings" on the nose. More recently, some units have been repainted with a large, billowing American flag with the corporate motto "Building America" on the side, where the 'UNION PACIFIC' lettering is normally positioned. This paint scheme is known as "Building America," "Wings," or "Flags and Flares."
The Armour Yellow livery was first introduced on the UP's M-10000 streamliner train in 1934, although Leaf Brown was used instead of Harbor Mist Grey. Passenger cars, cabooses, and other non-freight equipment have also been painted in a similar fashion.
The steam locomotive paint schemes are unique in their own way. Up until the mid-1940s, all steam locomotives on UP were painted in a standard scheme: the smokebox and firebox were painted graphite and the rest was painted jet black; the lettering was usually aluminum. In the late 1940s, many passenger steam locomotives were repainted in a two-tone grey scheme to match the scheme applied to some coaching stock. These locomotives were painted light grey, with one dark gray strip running from front to rear alongside the running board and in the middle of the tender. This dark grey strip was outlined in yellow (originally aluminum), and all lettering inside the strip was yellow also. After 1952, these locomotives were repainted in the same basic black color scheme as the earlier freight locomotives. The grey passenger cars were repainted in the yellow scheme.
From the second half of 2005 to the summer of 2006, UP unveiled a new set of six EMD SD70ACe locomotives in "Heritage Colors," painted in schemes reminiscent of railroads acquired by UP since the 1980s. The engine numbers match the year that the predecessor railroad was absorbed into Union Pacific. The locomotives commemorate the Missouri Pacific with UP 1982, the Western Pacific with UP 1983, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas with UP 1988, the Chicago and North Western with UP 1995, the Southern Pacific with UP 1996, and the Denver and Rio Grande Western with UP 1989. Although the Denver & Rio Grande Western was not a direct predecessor because it had purchased the SP in 1988 but kept the larger system's name, the Union Pacific still included it in the heritage series.[13]
In October 2005, UP unveiled another specially painted SD70ACe: 4141 has "George Bush 41" on the sides and its paint scheme resembles that of Air Force One.
On March 31, 2010, UP dedicated a specially painted GE ES44AC locomotive commemorating the centennial of the Boy Scouts of America.[14] Although it retains the standard Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist colors, the unit has a large BSA 2010 logo on the side and the scouting logo low on the side of the nose.
As of January 1, 2008, UP has 8,595 locomotives on its active roster.[15][16]
| Type | Quantity |
|---|---|
| 4-6-6-4 | 1 |
| 4-8-4 | 1 |
| B40-8 | 91 |
| C40-8 | 333 |
| C40-8W | 50 |
| C41-8W | 154 |
| C4460AC | 80 |
| C44-9W | 274 |
| C44AC/CTE | 1338 |
| C45AC/CTE | 775 |
| C6044AC | 176 |
| C60AC | 75 |
| DDA40X | 1 |
| E9A | 2 |
| E9B | 1 |
| GP15-1 | 160 |
| GP38-2 | 334 |
| GP38AC | 2 |
| GP39-2 | 49 |
| GP40 | 15 |
| GP40-2 | 142 |
| GP40-2P | 2 |
| GP40M-2 | 65 |
| GP50 | 48 |
| GP60 | 194 |
| MP15AC | 41 |
| MP15DC | 102 |
| SD40-2 | 948 |
| SD40T-2 | 24 |
| SD40T-2R | 84 |
| SD50 | 10 |
| SD60 | 85 |
| SD60M | 560 |
| SD70ACe | 321 |
| SD70M | 1452 |
| SD9043AC | 309 |
| SW1500 | 18 |
As of March 21, 2010, UP operates 50 Southern Pacific, 36 St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt), and 2 Chicago and North Western locomotives that are still in the former railroads' paint. In addition, many locomotives have been "patched" and renumbered by UP, varying in the degree of the previous railroads' logos being eradicated, but always with a yellow patch applied over the locomotive's former number and a new UP number applied on the cab. This allows UP to number locomotives into its roster, yet it takes less time and money than it does to perform a complete repaint into UP colors. As of July 31, 2005, UP rostered 492 "patches", consisting of:
While not technically a predecessor locomotive in the traditional sense, UP rosters a single SD40-2 (3564) in pre-merger paint.
Alone among modern railroads, UP maintains a small fleet of historic locomotives for special trains and hire in its Cheyenne, Wyoming roundhouse. The roundhouse is just south of the historic depot.
In addition there are a number of other locomotives kept in storage for possible future restoration. Rio Grande (DRGW) F9B 5763 is one of the units in storage, part of the Trio (A-B-B) of F9s that served on the Rio Grande in various Passenger Duty services (From the Denver Ski Train to the Zephyr Trains) until their retirement in 1996. Sister Units 5771 (F9A) and 5762 (F9B) were donated to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Chicago & Northwestern F7 #401, used in Chicago Commuter Service, also was retained by UP.
UP 838, a twin to 844, is stored in the Cheyenne roundhouse as a parts source, though as most of its usable parts have already been applied to 844, it is more likely to see use as a source of pattern parts for reproduction replacements. Reputedly, 838's boiler is in better condition than that of 844, due to 838 having not been in steam since retirement, compared to 844's relatively heavy use since 1960.
Among the former tenants was Southern Pacific 1518 (the First Production SD7 ex EMD demo 990), transferred to the Illinois Railway Museum after sometime in storage in the UP shops.
In addition to the historic fleet outlined above kept by UP itself, a large number of UP locomotives survive elsewhere. Many locomotives were donated to towns along the Union Pacific tracks, for instance, as well as locomotives donated to museums.
Union Pacific operated through passenger service over its historic "Overland Route" between 1869 until May 1, 1971. The last passenger train operated by UP was the westbound City of Los Angeles. After May 1, 1971 Amtrak assumed operation of long-distance passenger operations in the United States. UP at various times operated the following named passenger trains:
UP mainly operates commuter trains for Metra on the Union Pacific Lines: Union Pacific/North Line, Union Pacific/Northwest Line, and Union Pacific/West Line.
Many Amtrak Routes use Union Pacific rails: Amtrak Cascades, California Zephyr, Capitol Corridor, Cardinal, Coast Starlight, Hoosier State, Lincoln Service, Missouri River Runner, Pacific Surfliner, San Joaquin, Sunset Limited, and Texas Eagle.
On June 28, 2004 in Macdona, Texas a UP train collided with an idle BNSF train resulting in the puncturing of a 90-ton tank car carrying liquified chlorine. As the chlorine vaporized, a toxic “yellow cloud” soon formed which killed 3 (the UP conductor and two residents nearby) and caused 43 hospitalizations. The costs of cleanup and property damaged during the incident have exceeded 7 million dollars.[19]
Another derailment in November 1994 killed a bystander in a neighboring business in San Antonio. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson demanded a federal investigation in the Union Pacific crashes around Bexar County.[20] Area civic leaders called for the rerouting of Union Pacific’s hazardous chemicals around the city altogether. In March 2005, Texas Governor Rick Perry supported a plan to reroute trains around large urban population centers in the state of Texas, including San Antonio [21]
Various investigations of the Macdona incident have revealed several serious safety lapses on the part of the Union Pacific and its employees; specifically, Federal Railroad Administration officials in 2004 have reported that the Union Pacific had "notable deficiencies", including its employees not following the company's own safety rules.[22] While initial reports blamed "fatigue" of the crew of the UP train, many other contributing factors have been cited. Among those, the improper placing of the chlorine tank cars near the front of the train.[23] Placing cars containing hazardous materials had traditionally been an operational measure used to safeguard against the likelihood of the tank cars being among the first affected in the event of a derailment and reduce their likelihood of colliding with heavier steel cars.
In the aftermath of the Macdona and other incidents, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) signed a compliance agreement with the railroad in November 2004 in which the railroad promised to rectify the "notable deficiencies" that regulators found.[21][22] Specifically, the agreement mandated increased training for railroad managers and increased FRA inspectors in the region by 10 inspectors.[22] United States Assemblyman Charlie Gonzalez questioned if the agreement went far enough; he and other Congressional delegation members questioned the FRA's "partnership" approach as being "too cozy a relationship to the railroads" and cited an article in The New York Times that reported that the acting FRA administrator, Betty Monro, and the chief lobbyist for Union Pacific, Mary E. McAuliffe, had vacationed several times together on Nantucket.[22]
The railroad’s San Antonio Service Unit (SASU) has had other derailments.[24][25][26][27] Including a Schulenburg, Texas incident in June 2009 in which again tank cars containing chlorine and petroleum naptha xylene derailed but were not punctured.[28]
According to UP’s 2007 Annual Report to Investors, at the end of 2007 it had more than 50,000 employees, 8,721 locomotives, and 94,284 freight cars.
Broken down by specific type of car, owned and leased:
In addition, it owns 6,950 different pieces of maintenance of way work equipment. At the end of 2007 the average age of UP’s locomotive fleet was 14.8 years, the freight car fleet 28 years.
Presidents of the Union Pacific Railroad:
Chief Executive Officers, Presidents, and Chairmen of the Union Pacific Corporation (parent corporation of the railroad)
Citing its development of a "green" locomotive fleet and energy conservation measures, the UP states it is "...committed to protecting the environment now and for future generations. Our employees, customers, shareholders and the communities we serve can expect our full compliance with all laws and regulations ... We will continue our leadership in caring for the environment while delivering the goods that America needs."[29] In Eugene, Oregon, the UP and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are jointly studying ground contamination at the railroad's yard originating from over one hundred years ago, consisting mostly of petroleum hydrocarbons, industrial solvents, and metals. This has affected a nearby groundwater source.[30]
Union Pacific Railroad has recently started an experimental method of reducing emissions from the engine exhaust of their locomotives. By adding an experimental oxidation catalyst filtering canister to the diesel engine's exhaust manifold, they are attempting to reduce the amount of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter generated, much like a catalytic converter in automobiles and trucks. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s National Vehicle Fuels and Emissions Laboratory provided most of the funding for the test. Using Ultra Low Sulfur diesel with the oxicat resulted in reduced particulate emissions by approximately 50 percent, unburned hydrocarbons by 38 percent and carbon monoxide by 82 percent.[31]
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