Union Pacific Freight Trains at Albany, Oregon, in early April 2006

I took these pictures from my car on Interstate 5 near Albany, Oregon. First, on April 4, 2006, I photographed a northbound Union Pacific freight train led by a pair of 4,000-horsepower SD70M locomotives. I can’t make out the road number of the lead unit, but the second is Union Pacific #4593, which was built by the General Motors Locomotive Group in London, Ontario, and delivered on April 9, 2001.

On April 5, 2006, I photographed this southbound Union Pacific freight train, powered by a pair of 3,000-horsepower SD40-2 locomotives. In the lead is Union Pacific #3424, which was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in March 1978. The second unit is Union Pacific #7896, which was built by the Electro-Motive Division in June 1974 as Union Pacific #3257 and was renumbered to Union Pacific #7896 on November 26, 2003.

I photographed these locomotives pulling a southbound Union Pacific freight train on April 6, 2006. The lead locomotive is a 4,400-horsepower General Electric AC4400CW, which Union Pacific designates as a C44ACCTE. The road number is difficult to make out, but I believe this is Union Pacific #5803, which was built in February 2002 and delivered on March 8, 2002. The second unit is Union Pacific #9175, a 4,000-horsepower Dash 8-40C that was built by General Electric in July 1988. The third unit is a Union Pacific AC4400CW. I did not get the cab in the frame to know the road number, but the fact that it is painted with the lightning stripe but without the large American flag and “Building America” slogan leads me to believe it is a C44ACCTE from the #5700-5769 group built in early 2001. This group were the first AC4400CWs to feature the Controlled Tractive Effort software that allows these AC traction locomotives to mimic the operating characteristics of DC traction locomotives when desired in certain circumstances.