Nostalgia & History > Classy U50 shots?

Three BIG boats and a couple of garden-variety B-units! A consist that only Uncle Pete could scare up... And at Calhoun Bluffs we see a total club-foot clank of a consist: U50 ~ GP30... WOOF! So what if the weather is less than ideal, and code-comm lines dominate one of the images. Bill shot himself a couple of dandies. We’re talkin’ U50s here, from a looong time ago in a galaxy far, far away! At the very least, it was Dependable Transportation... ;^)

1. UP 50 is not embarrassed to lead 2 close siblings + a pair of also-rans near Uintah, UT on September 18, 1965.

2. UP 50 again, leading a GP30? What else can be said? Westbound at Calhoun Bluffs NE of Topeka, KS on September 25, 1965.
Kodachrome slides by William A. Gibson Sr, now in the James T Wilson collection.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Wilson (jtwlunch)
Remembering the late Bill Gibson, aka ‘WAG Sr’



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/23 03:07 by santafe199.

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Wow, what a U50 lashup-!  1. UP 50 is not embarrassed to lead 2 close siblings + a pair of also-rans near Uintah, UT, on September 18, 1965.

Glad you scanned those winners.

Love the U50's running elephant style!

Interesting consists. And those B units behind the U50's in the first one as well.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

I was never able to see a UP U50 but it appears UP took the single note Leslie A-200 horns from older retired F units
and perhaps turbines and installed them on the big GEs. Or....did they come with these horns from GE?
Great photos!
Regards, Jim Evans

Without checking the utahrails site, wasn't #50 the class engine of the U50's.  Good stuff, Lance,t hanks for posting.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Nice set, #2 is a Great Dane-Chihuahua consist...

JG

ntharalson Wrote: > ... wasn't #50 the class engine of the U50's ...

I believe eng #31 was the class unit. The 50 was toward the end, with 53 being the highest number I can find...

Very enjoyable series!

Larry

First U50 was numbered 31. Saw it on display at a Powerama exhibit in Chicago in 1963. Big Blow turbines were numbered 1-30 on UP.

Tom

FiveChime Wrote:

> I was never able to see a UP U50 but it appears UP
> took the single note Leslie A-200 horns from older
> retired F units and perhaps turbines and installed them on the big
> GEs. Or....did they come with these horns from GE?

This photo of brand new U50 #37 appears to show the usual pair of A-200-156's hiding behind the roofwalk, so the Whirlybirds probably came from GE that way:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2299154

Units without the roofwalk over the forward radiators had the horns side-by-side; those with the roofwalk had them in tandem:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2245856

The horns are admittedly sometimes hard to see way up on top of these extremely tall units, but I don't recall ever seeing a photo of a Union Pacific 8-axle U50 wearing anything other than a pair of Leslie A-200-156's. 

The 6-axle U50C's mostly came with Leslie S-5T's, but 5010 and 5021 at least appear to have worn S-3L's:

http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5212357
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5212359

A late photo of 5027 on page 53 of Union Pacific's Big GEs - U50 and U50C appears to show a Nathan P3 up on the radiator wings, see also:

http://rr-fallenflags.org/up/up5027dsa.jpg

Great shots, Lance!

RC Lundgren

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ntharalson Wrote: > ... wasn't #50 the class
> engine of the U50's ...
>
> I believe eng #31 was the class unit. The 50 was
> toward the end, with 53 being the highest number I
> can find...

Thanks, Lance.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Never got to see a U50, very much to my regret, since I have always found them to be extremely interesting. But these two images go a long, long way to easing that regret. Perhaps the two best U50 images I've ever seen -- outstanding.

Thanks, guys. And fine work with the scans, Lance. (P.S. Talk to PRose, Lance - he has a great U50 story to tell, which you may recall from a certain trip to Galesburg a few years back....)

MC

I never got to see the U50's either, but I do like the giant, brick-like appearance of the UP units.  The radiators at opposite ends, the four Type-B's, and the strange but fascinating screened-in blower compartments at either end all helped. 

I never could warm up to the 6-axle U50C's, though.  With the radiator wings centered on the hood, the cab stuck up like an afterthought and the whole locomotive looked vaguely insect-like.

I never saw one, but I've had this one since about 1972?
Not sure, But I think The Hobby shops didn't have an N guage DDA40X at the time , which is the ones I DID see as a kid, so I talked Mom into buying this one as a consolation, it really pulled a lot of cars!

Jim Baker
Riverside, CA

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