Nostalgia & History > RI and UP Fs

RI 303 and two just purchased, new-to-the-property, UP F units heading south at South Jct. (Wichita, Kansas) April 14, 1972. Photo by Allan Ramsey. 

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If I recall right some of the F's were exchanged to the Rock Island as they were in better shape and the Rock F's went for the trade in to EMD for UP's newer units.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Exactly.  And some of them ran under their UP numbers on the RI before getting their RI numbers.   I was a teenage railfan in Memphis hanging out at the place that copied this order.  When I heard this order transmitted, I wondered why a UP F-unit was coming to Memphis on the RI.  I had to wait for the next issue of Extra 2200 South magazine to arrive before I found out.  Ah, the days before the internet!     

Bob3985 Wrote:
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> If I recall right some of the F's were exchanged
> to the Rock Island as they were in better shape
> and the Rock F's went for the trade in to EMD for
> UP's newer units.

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Rathole Wrote:
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> Exactly.  And some of them ran under their UP
> numbers on the RI before getting their RI
> numbers.   I was a teenage railfan in
> Memphis hanging out at the place that copied
> this order.  When I heard this order
> transmitted, I wondered why a UP F-unit was
> coming to Memphis on the RI.  I had to wait for
> the next issue of Extra 2200 South magazine to
> arrive before I found out.  Ah, the days
> before the internet!     
>

The sale was in February 1972, so your trainorder shows that Rock Island began using the ex-UP units right away. UP sold 19 cab units and 12 cabless booster units to Rock Island. All were used by Rock Island as trade-in for 52 GP38-2s in November 1976. These same 52 units were leased to Rock Island, and when the Rock went bankrupt in 1980, the lease was sold to Missouri Pacific, where they became MP 2238-2289. When UP and MP merged in 1983, they became UP 2238-2289. The remaining units were renumbered to UP 738-789 in 2000-2001. The actual ownership of the 52 units changed among leasing companies, and by 2007, all were owned by GATX, with UP continuing to lease the units. In 2006-2007, all were renumbered as GMTX units in their 2110-2161 series, remaining in service on UP.

So UP's F9s came full circle, leaving UP for Rock Island in February 1972, and the units they were traded-in for returning in 1983. And 33 years later, those "new" units are still in service.

Don Strack