UP 4-12-2 in passenger service? - Classic Trains Magazine
- Member since
November 2008 - 499 posts
UP 4-12-2 in passenger service?
Posted by De Luxe on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 9:41 PMHello,
recently I read in a german magazine about railroad-history, that the Union Pacific 4-12-2 steamers were also used in regular passenger service from 1926 to 1936 when the first Challengers arrived. I really wondered about that, because I always thought that the 9000 class was built for freight trains only, and because I never saw a photo of a 4-12-2 in front of a passenger train. I always thought that in the pre Northern/Challenger days, UP passenger trains were pulled by doubleheading 4-8-2 Mountains over Sherman Hill and Wasatch Pass, and by single 4-8-2 Mountain + 4-10-2 Overland helper over Cajon Pass. Therefore I would like to know, on which divisions/parts of the UP system the 9000 class has been working in passenger service if that was the case. And then I got another question: I know that the very last 4-12-2´s quit service in 1956. But where was that territory where they survived the longest? In Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada or California?
