Union Pacific GP39-2 #1207 & GP38-2 #1045 at Albany, Oregon

On October 3, 2006, I photographed these Union Pacific locomotives from my car on Interstate 5 at Albany, Oregon. Union Pacific #1207 is a 2,300-horsepower GP39-2 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in January 1977 as Kennecott Copper Corporation #788, one of a group of 11 built with high-visibility cabs 26 inches higher than normal for service in the Brigham Canyon copper mine near Salt Lake City, Utah. These locomotives were removed from service on September 19, 1983, due to the discontinuance of rail waste trains. On August 2, 1984, this unit was one of nine of the eleven to be leased by Kennecott with Helm Financial as agent to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. The cabs of these nine units were lowered by National Railway Equipment at a leased facility in Clearfield, Utah, between August and October 1984, and they were moved to the MKT in October 1984. This locomotive became MKT #387. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas was merged into the Union Pacific in August 1988, and this was first of the group to be renumbered, becoming Union Pacific #2357 on December 13, 1988. It was renumbered to Union Pacific #1207 on October 15, 2002. Union Pacific #1045 was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in October 1967 as New York Central #3097, a 3,000-horsepower GP40. On February 1, 1968, the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form Penn Central, and on April 1, 1976, the Penn Central was merged into Conrail. The locomotive retained its original number through these mergers to become Conrail #3097. Retired by Conrail, the locomotive became Kyle Railroad #3118 by 1988, the went to Helm Leasing as #3118. On November 21, 1989, Union Pacific leased the locomotive from Helm Financial, and it became Union Pacific #874. It 1998 it was returned to Helm Financial and rebuilt by Boise Locomotive Corporation into a 2,000-horsepower GP38-2 locomotive, though it retained the three radiator fans of a GP40. It was again leased to Union Pacific As #2545 on September 2, 1998, and was renumbered to #1045 on September 15, 2001.