Union Pacific Freight Train at Albany, Oregon, on March 30, 2006

I photographed this southbound Union Pacific freight train from my car on Interstate 5 at Albany, Oregon, on March 30, 2006. Leading the train, Union Pacific #3888 is a 4,000-horsepower SD70M built by the General Motors Locomotive Group in London, Ontario, and was delivered on March 7, 2003. The second unit is Union Pacific #3188, a 3,000-horsepower SD40-2 built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in July 1972. The third unit is a Union Pacific SD70M that appears to be #4067, which was built by the General Motors Locomotive Group in London, Ontario, and was delivered November 6, 2000. The fourth unit is a Union Pacific SD40-2 that appears to be #3222, which was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in May 1973.

The trailing locomotive is Union Pacific #3319, a 3,000-horsepower SD40-2 built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in July 1976 as Union Pacific #8049. This locomotive was originally one of Union Pacific’s “Fast Forties” with high-speed gearing for a top speed of 80 miles per hour. In July 1980 it was converted to standard gearing and renumbered to Union Pacific #3319.

Here are a couple of interesting boxcars that were part of this freight train. On the left is a boxcar from the Northern Alberta Railways. The Northern Alberta Railways was chartered in March 1929, combining the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway, the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway, the Central Canada Railway and the Pembina Valley Railway into a joint subsidiary of the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway extending from Edmonton to McMurray and Hines Creek in Alberta and to Dawson Creek, British Columbia, and later connecting at Grimshaw, Alberta, with the Great Slave Lake Railway to Hay River, Northwest Territories, which opened in 1964 and was operated by Canadian National. On January 1, 1981, Canadian National bought out Canadian Pacific’s share in the Northern Alberta Railways and it was merged into CN. Thus, this boxcar dates to before 1981 and has not been repainted since then. Next to it is this former Golden West Service boxcar. Golden West Service started around 1990 using former Southern Pacific and Cotton Belt (SSW) freight cars that were sold to Greenbrier, refurbished by Gunderson, and leased back to Southern Pacific wearing the reporting marks of short line railroads. These cars were restored to their original reporting marks and road numbers when they were released from the arrangement in the early 2000s. Cotton Belt (SSW) boxcar #66220 is a class B-70-67 boxcar with two 8-foot sliding doors on each side and a capacity of 5,283 cubic feet that was built by FMC between April and June of 1973. It was refurbished for Golden West Service with GVSR reporting marks of the Galveston Railroad and numbered in the 767200-767258 or 767275-767291 series. It had since been restored to its original reporting marks and road number but still wore its Golden West Service paint scheme.