Club Lounge Cars
The Sun Valley was built in 1949 by American Car & Foundry as club lounge No. 6203 and named the Colorado River. The River series cars featured a barber shop and valet service. The car was rebuilt in 1959, and the barber shop and valet areas were converted into card rooms. The car was named Sun Valley in 1989.
Union Pacific established the world famous Sun Valley ski resort in 1936. The resort area is nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. Averell Harriman, then chairman of the board, wanted to bring riders back to the rails and he thought a ski resort might help. The Sun Valley Lodge and Challenger Inn offered year-round ice skating and a heated swimming pool. During the summer, outdoor activities included horseback riding and golf.
In order to get skiers up the mountains, a chair lift was designed and built in the Union Pacific shops at Omaha, Nebraska, the first such lift ever used on any ski slope in the world. The lodge was turned over to the Navy during World War II for a rehabilitation hospital.
The resort was the location for the filming of the 1938 film “Sun Valley Serenade” with Sonja Henie. Spencer Tracy starred in “Northwest Passage,” which was filmed just a few miles from the valley. Many of Hollywood’s stars vacationed at Sun Valley.
In 1964 Union Pacific sold the Sun Valley resort to the Janss Corporation.