Strange bedfellows: Motive power of sometime competitors Union Pacific and Chicago Burlington & Quincy occupy adjacent tracks at UP’s Pullman roundhouse in Denver on September 23, 1968. F-unit 531 has come in on the overnight freight from Kansas City. Chicago, Burlington & Quincy U28B 110 is down from North Platte, pool power on a UP manifest. Almost two decades separate these two units. The 2800-hp U-boat is less than two years old. The F-unit, one of UP’s first diesel freighters, was built two decades ago as a 1500-hp F3A, and in 1958 was rebuilt by EMD as a 1750-hp F9A (technically an F9AM). In four years, in anticipation of a merger (that will never happen), UP will sell the 531 to Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, which will run then engine into the ground by 1974. The 110 will live on until August, 1986, as Burlington Northern 5454.
