The Heritage Series Union Pacific: The Merger Years, Volume 2
Come along for a continued
look at the merger era Union Pacifc begun in Union Pacific, The MoPac Merger
Years.
We begin with as the
Missouri-Kansas-Texas is merged into U.P. subsidiary Missouri Pacific. By this time, the Katy’s own route into St.
Louis had been abandoned in favor of trackage rights over MoPac from
Sedalia. The daily Katy train into the
Gateway City is seen at several locations in St. Louis proper, as well as in
the western suburbs. One train has a
rare locomotive: the last F Unit on the roster.
As the Katy was merged into
the MoPac, the Katy train symbols were kept for some time even as operations
were otherwise consolidated. This
resulted in a mix-and-match of power appearing on the Katy trains.
Next, we move onto the former
Missouri Pacific as both Jenks Blue locomotives and yellow locomotives with
MoPac lettering run side by side with their Union Pacific cousins. This section also includes appearances by a
Western Pacific Geep and a Katy Geep on a coal train passing the semaphores at
Neilson tower.
Next, it’s back to the St.
Louis area for a quick look at the Chicago & North Western’s former
Litchfield & Madison line at Granite City and Madison, Illinois. First generation Geeps are seen doing
switching work in the yards. From there,
it’s off to the Nebraska mainline during the era when Union Pacific and the
North Western were partners in both coal and transcontinental traffic. North Western locomotives were common in all
types of service on the U.P.’s transcontinental mainline, and this partnership
set the stage for the merger that was to come.
We end our show at Rochelle,
Illinois, a year after the North Western was merged into the Union
Pacific. Plenty of North Western power
was still running about on home rails, including some first generation Geeps on
local freights.
It was an interesting time to
be a railfan along the lines of the railroads that made up a growing Union
Pacific system.
