Borrowed time
On September 11, 1996, Southern Pacific merged with Union Pacific in one of the biggest mergers in railroad history. Since that event occurred, almost all of the SP engines have been completely repainted to Union Pacific livery, scrapped, or sold off. But a handful of them, just patched with a UP number below the conductor and engineer window...still run on the system in 2023.
UP 6236 is one of those engines. It's rare to see it in person; it's even rarer to see it lead. But 27 years after the merger, this engine not only has managed to avoid the paint can, for the most part...on this night, it managed to lead a train. Here it is heading eastbound with a mixed manifest, ducking under the coal chute in DeKalb, Illinois, on a chilly winter night.
Borrowed time
On September 11, 1996, Southern Pacific merged with Union Pacific in one of the biggest mergers in railroad history. Since that event occurred, almost all of the SP engines have been completely repainted to Union Pacific livery, scrapped, or sold off. But a handful of them, just patched with a UP number below the conductor and engineer window...still run on the system in 2023.
UP 6236 is one of those engines. It's rare to see it in person; it's even rarer to see it lead. But 27 years after the merger, this engine not only has managed to avoid the paint can, for the most part...on this night, it managed to lead a train. Here it is heading eastbound with a mixed manifest, ducking under the coal chute in DeKalb, Illinois, on a chilly winter night.