Nostalgia & History > F-unit Friday: Canary Yellow in Black & White

I don’t know a whole lot about Union Pacific’s early passenger diesels. I grew up seeing scads of elegant E units on all of Uncle Pete’s passenger traffic through my hometown of Manhattan. I’ve even seen MILW Es. I distinctly remember seeing the “tilted” MILW emblem on trailing units a time or 2. And then in my early teenage years SDP35s came onto the scene in mixed train service. But danged if this ain’t an F3 in passenger service. Granted, it’s a few years before I was born, but it still seems a bit rare to me.

If I read Don Strack’s UtahRails website correctly UP had trio of A-B-B F3s occupying the 964, 965 & 966 number slots during 1947 & 1948, with renumbering coming later in 1948. If I’m on the wrong track here (pun fully intended), someone please feel free to step in with better info. And I’ll go back to drooling over the image… :^)

1. UP 966, an F3 is pointing train #10, the “City of St Louis” during its station stop at Topeka, KS. Estimated photo date: Circa 1947.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)
count-down to rodney



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/23 03:01 by santafe199.

---

Beauty of a shot. Coupler covers too and appears to be before silver trucks were the standard. I remember the F3s being common on #70 but them being on #10 is before I started paying attention
Brian Stevens

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/20 08:00 by SCKP187.

Beautiful shot!!

RodneyZona Wrote: > ...  Beautiful shot!! ...

Thank you, Rodney, on behalf of the late photographer, Bill Gibson (aka 'WAG Sr'). :^)

And to Brian: As a kid that age I certainly knew a passenger train from a freight train, but had no idea about looking for specific engine numbers. As I remember in those early-mid 1960s I would occasionally see an eastbound passenger train in the afternoon, which I can now identify as #70. So I'm wondering if, and how many times as that grade school kid I might have seen F3s on #70 and just not known it. Sounds like the odds are significant...

Lance 

 

looks like the wings are more than a decal too, and UP didn't put railroad on the herald  then

Very rare photo. Thanks for sharing it. The five cab units, and 10 booster units only had those 960-series numbers for about six months, before being renumbered to the later 900-series numbers. As E8s and E9s continued to arrive, UP realized they did not need the passenger F units, and reassigned them as freight units in the 1450-series in 1953-1955.

Roster data is here:

UP 960-series...
https://utahrails.net/up-diesel-roster/up-diesel-roster-17.php#f3a-964a

UP 900-series...
https://utahrails.net/up-diesel-roster/up-diesel-roster-18.php

UP 1451-series...
https://utahrails.net/up-diesel-roster/up-diesel-roster-22.php#f3a-1451

By the way, it's not Canary Yellow. It's Armour Yellow. I know it well, since it flowed strongly in my veins, until about 10 years ago.

Don Strack
https://utahrails.net/whatsnew.php

We must all need to give Don an "attboy" for his work. 
Thank you! wag216



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/20 11:37 by wag216.