Nostalgia & History > Billboards On The Handrails Of UP's SD40-2's

What did the billboards on the side handrails of UP's SD40-2's say? And, when were they discontined?

I recall them to be fuel saving messages. Started about early 80s? and were gone in a few years, maybe 85-86?. Cabooses had the safety messages. Maybe the locomotives had them too, I just recall messages about saving fuel

Here is one on UP 3701 at San Bernardino in April 1982.

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Don Strack's site indicates they started in June 1980. See http://www.utahrails.net/up/up-diesel-paint.php and scroll down to the June 1980 item. Doesn't say when they were discontinued.

The United Way unit is the only unit I can think of, still running around with a banner mounted to the handrails. This first shot was taken after wying the power at Hobart after a trip from Yermo to L.A. back in 1996.

The next two shots are of the Desert Storm that also had banners on each side of the unit, listing the names of the UP employees who were in the war.

The first shot was taken at East Yard in L.A. when it was on display in April of '91.

The second shot was on it's return trip east at MP 57x on Cajon, taken by Bob Gottier on April 29, 1991.

As a side note, on the Desert Storm unit, at the time I was a manager at East yard and had a print of Bob's picture on the wall at my desk. I had a conductor come in and seeing the unit in camo paint, asked me about it. When I explained about the names of employees serving in the war, he told me he had just gotten back from the war. I told him his name was probably on the unit. I then gave him John Bromley's number in the PR department and John promptly sent him several prints of the unit and a close up of the panel with his name on it. The conductor was pretty impressed with the way UP treated it's war personnel. The UP made up the difference in pay (and still does) between what the military paid and what they would have made on their jobs on the railroad.-BMT

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UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
> As a side note, on the Desert Storm unit, at the
> time I was a manager at East yard and had a print
> of Bob's picture on the wall at my desk. I had a
> conductor come in and seeing the unit in camo
> paint, asked me about it. When I explained about
> the names of employees serving in the war, he told
> me he had just gotten back from the war. I told
> him his name was probably on the unit. I then gave
> him John Bromley's number in the PR department and
> John promptly sent him several prints of the unit
> and a close up of the panel with his name on it.
> The conductor was pretty impressed with the way UP
> treated it's war personnel. The UP made up the
> difference in pay (and still does) between what
> the military paid and what they would have made on
> their jobs on the railroad.-BMT

Class act. Thanks for sharing that story.

Joe Atkinson
Council Bluffs, IA
www.iaisrailfans.org/../Sub4WestEnd