Union Pacific Railroad

Class I freight railroad in the United States

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March 12 2025 Union Pacific announces a special locomotive (UP 1616) to honor Abraham Lincoln, commemorating the Pacific Railway Act and the Golden Spike Ceremony.
2025 Wabtec is modernizing 600 older Union Pacific locomotives over a three-year period to improve fuel efficiency, reliability, and reduce emissions.
2025 Wabtec is completing a three-year project to modernize 600 older Union Pacific locomotives, improving fuel efficiency, reliability, and reducing emissions.
2024 Union Pacific Railroad expected to transfer operations of the three Union Pacific lines to Metra, with Union Pacific continuing to own and maintain the right-of-way.
December 18 2024 A Union Pacific train crashed into a semi-truck in Pecos, Texas, causing multiple locomotives and freight cars to derail. Two Union Pacific employees were killed, three were injured, and the Pecos Chamber of Commerce was damaged.
July 2024 Expected completion of the third track construction project initiated in September 2022.
July 2024 Expected completion of the third track construction project between West Chicago and Geneva.
March 2024 Union Pacific received a critical letter from the Federal Railroad Administration regarding safety concerns due to extensive layoffs, with the FRA emphasizing the importance of maintaining highly trained personnel for critical railroad operations.
September 2023 Union Pacific furloughed 138 workers, prompting a reprimand from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for high rates of locomotive and car defects.
August 14 2023 Jim Vena became the Chief Executive Officer of Union Pacific, replacing Lance Fritz.
January 2023 Restoration efforts on UP 3985 began at RRHMA.
2022 Business car No. 101 was renamed Lincoln to honor the 16th president and the founder of the Union Pacific Railroad.
2022 Utah proposed bill HB405 to require Union Pacific to replace aging Tier 0 switching locomotives with hydrogen or electric engines, which was ultimately dropped after Union Pacific made voluntary commitments to replace some locomotives with less polluting alternatives.
2022 DDA40X No. 6936 was removed from the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet.
November 2022 Remaining donated equipment was moved to RRHMA in Silvis, Illinois.
September 2022 Union Pacific begins construction of a third track from West Chicago through Geneva to improve traffic flow and reduce conflicts between commuter and freight trains.
September 14 2022 No. 5511 was moved around the Cheyenne roundhouse yard for testing, accompanied by Big Boy No. 4014.
August 2022 First five donated cars were moved to RRHMA in Silvis, Illinois.
May 13 2022 RRHMA launched a fundraiser to support the restoration of UP 3985 and UP 5511 steam locomotives.
April 28 2022 Union Pacific announced the donation of several heritage fleet pieces to the Railroading Heritage of Midwest America (RRHMA).
2021 Further ridership reduction to 1,486,536 passengers, continuing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 2021 Union Pacific repainted an SD70M into a commemorative 'We Are ONE' paint scheme to honor Juneteenth and Pride Month.
2020 Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ridership dramatically dropped to 2,602,403 passengers, a significant reduction from previous years.
2020 Houston residents filed lawsuits against Union Pacific Railroad Company following the discovery of a higher-than-expected incidence of certain cancers near a rail yard.
January 2020 UP 3985 was officially retired following the restoration of UP 4014.
2019 Annual ridership declined to 10,384,356 passengers, representing a 10.6% decrease from 2014 levels.
2019 Union Pacific was ranked 134th on the Fortune 500 list of largest US corporations by revenue, with 41,967 employees.
November 2019 Union Pacific began cleaning out areas along the tracks in San Jose, California, after years of complaints about transient camps and graffiti, following threats of a lawsuit from the city.
November 8 2019 The George Bush commemorative locomotive 4141 was donated to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
September 7 2019 A remotely operated Union Pacific train derailed at the Albina Yard in Portland, Oregon, crashing into an overpass support column. Broken rails were cited as the cause, and four of six lanes were left unsafe.
June 6 2019 Union Pacific unveiled SD70ACe 1111, the 'Powered By Our People' unit.
May 2019 UP 4014's restoration to full operating condition was completed, and it began excursion service with 'The Great Race to Ogden' trip.
2018 Former railway tool car No. 904277 was converted into Experience the Union Pacific car No. 5752 and renamed Promontory, creating a multi-media walk-through exhibition about railroading.
2018 The Niland Geyser, a moving mud pot near the eastern shore of the Salton Sea, encroached on the railroad, requiring extensive engineering work to delay its movement and build a temporary diversion.
2018 UP No. 4141, a locomotive named in honor of President George H. W. Bush, pulled the president's funeral train on his final journey to College Station, Texas.
August 2018 Railway tool car No. 904277 was retrieved from storage at Union Pacific's coach shop.
January 2018 A waste water operator at Union Pacific Albina Yard in Portland, Oregon negligently released thousands of gallons of oil into the environment, with some oil spilling into the Willamette River.
2017 Union Pacific decided to repaint all locomotives that were not in the current corporate colors, moving away from retaining predecessor railroad paint schemes.
October 19 2017 Union Pacific unveiled SD70AH 1943, 'The Spirit of the Union Pacific', painted to honor the United States armed forces.
2016 UP 6936 was placed into storage after serving in the excursion fleet.
2016 UP 844 returned to service after its rebuild.
2016 Union Pacific Railroad Co. was named as a defendant in a lawsuit seeking cleanup of a contaminated rail yard site in Lafayette, Louisiana, which operated from the late 1800s until the 1960s.
June 3 2016 A 96-car oil train derailed in the Columbia River Gorge near Mosier, Oregon. Eleven cars derailed, at least one caught fire, and crude oil spilled into the Columbia River.
2015 UP 844 was rebuilt.
May 2015 Union Pacific rostered 212 'patched' locomotives from predecessor railroads, including 22 from Chicago and North Western, 174 from Southern Pacific, 14 from St. Louis Southwestern, and 2 from Denver and Rio Grande Western.
2014 Annual ridership recorded at 11,609,358 passengers on the Union Pacific Northwest Line.
2014 Union Pacific opened an intermodal terminal in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, for transfers to trucks.
May 8 2014 UP 4014 completed its transfer to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
April 28 2014 UP 4014 began its transfer to Cheyenne, Wyoming for restoration.
January 26 2014 UP 4014 was moved from Pomona to the Union Pacific West Colton yard.

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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Union Pacific Northwest Line, Union Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific heritage fleet, Union Pacific 5511 & Union Pacific West Line, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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