In steam days, Union Pacific was one of Alco’s best customers, turning to the Schenectady, New York, builder for the Northerns, Challengers and Big Boys that were the epitome of modern power. With diesels, not so much. UP liked Alco switchers and dabbled in freight and passenger units, but without enthusiasm. In the early 1960s looking to replace first-generation diesels, the road ordered 3000-hp models from Alco, EMD, and GE. Alco’s Century 630 was easily the most powerful with the tractive effort of a Challenger, but at 200 tons it was also the heaviest. Three C630s could walk away with almost anything in the yard, but they were hell on track, and UP needed speed as well as pulling power. The railroad bought dozens of GE U30s and even more EMD SD40s, but kept its ten Centuries for less than a decade before selling them to a Canadian mining road. One remains today, on exhibit in the Arkansas Railroad Museum in Pine Bluff.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
