My First Train Pictures

These photos from 1989 are the first train pictures I ever took, making them ideal for a relaunch, even though they aren't very good. I was seven years old when I took these pictures with an old Imperial Mark XII camera from the 1950s from my grandparents house.

The first picture shows Union Pacific's Albina Yard in Portland, Oregon.  Shown here are Union Pacific's two main locomotives of the era, a GE C30-7 and an EMD SD40-2, both 3000-horsepower six-axle road freight diesels. The C30-7 still wears its original pre-1980 paint scheme with the UP shield on the cab, while the SD40-2 is in the current paint scheme.

A sole ex-Missouri Pacific caboose was on the caboose track. Union Pacific studied this design in the 1970s for its own new cabooses, which ended up with longer bodies. Union Pacific would take over the Missouri Pacific in 1982 and acquire the entire fleet of these cabooses, which operated across the entire UP system in their red MP paint.

Across the Willamette River at Burlington Northern's Hoyt Street Yard were a group of wreck-damaged Union Pacific SD40-2s. These locomotives were wrecked in Kalama, Washington, on March 3, 1989. This image of Union Pacific 3695 ended up as a double exposure.

I'm not sure what the number is of this Union Pacific SD40-2 with the side of its cab ripped away.

Union Pacific SD40-2 3282 was the only one of these locomotive that didn't return to service on the Union Pacific. It was sold to Burlington Northern on June 21, 1989, and was rebuilt at West Burlington, Iowa, using parts from BN's own wrecked SD40-2 6906, and was completed as a new BN 6906 on May 25, 1990. Also pictured here are UP SD40-2s 3695 and 3569. As bad as the other locomotives look, Union Pacific repaired them all and returned them to service.

The SD40-2 on the left is the same one in the picture above that I am not sure of the number. It is hard to read here, but it might be 3635. On the right is another view of UP 3695.

Finally, here is a Burlington Northern tank car in company diesel fuel service with the Hoyt Street turntable in the background. This yard is no longer there and the property has been developed.