Nostalgia & History > Thirty Thursday: UP 700

I caught the UP 700 at the City of Industry depot in August 1978 sitting on the house track. I had always thought this was UP's first GP30 but after looking it up in Don Strack's excellent website (Utahrails), I discovered it was actually the first unit of UP's second order of GP30's in 1963. The first group starting at 800 were purchased in 1962. UP's City of Industry locals were always good for using all sorts of geeps, from GP9s, GP20s, Omaha20s, GP30s and very rarely, GP35s. GP30s were the predominant units used as UP had so many of them.-BMT

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And don't forget the first Western Pacific engine that was painted UP yellow.

Exactly which I looked for all over NorCal and when visiting my Mom found the thing sitting in CofI!

Out

Don't forget that it was in the first batch of GP-30's that the 844 was numbered causing the railroad to renumber the 4-8-4 844 to 8444. In 1989, when the GP-30 was retired from the UP roster, we renumbered the steam locomotive to 844. We gave the old 8444 number plate to Drew and Marilyn Lewis, then UP Corp CEO, in a ceremony on their visit to Cheyenne.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY