Crew Sleepers
Columbia River
The Columbia River was built in 1950 by American Car & Foundry as the Western Wonderland, a 12-roomette (single), 4-bedroom sleeper. It was converted to an 11-bedroom car, the No. 1611 Sun Slope, in 1965. The car resembles traditional passenger sleeping cars because upper berths still remain in some rooms. In 1989, it was named the Columbia River.
Winding through Washington and Oregon, the Columbia River received its name when Captain Robert Gray, aboard the American vessel Columbia Rediviva, anchored 10 miles from its mouth. On May 19, 1792, Gray gave his ship's name to the river that became a major source of commerce and trade.
By 1860, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, a predecessor of Union Pacific, began steamboat operations on the river. Later, a railroad was built to bypass rapids in portions of the river. Up the Columbia River and down the Pacific coast, the Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, another UP predecessor, operated steamboats such as the Columbia and the T. J. Potter. The Columbia was the first vessel fitted with Thomas Edison's new electric lighting system powered by a portable generator. This generator is now at the Smithsonian.
Traveling by rail through the Columbia River Gorge is one of the most beautiful vistas on Union Pacific.
Little Rock
Built in 1950 by American Car & Foundry as the 12-roomette, 4-bedroom sleeper Western Scene, this car was rebuilt to an 11-bedroom sleeper, No. 1612 Sun Villa, in 1965. Renamed the North Platte in 1990 and finally Little Rock in 1995, the car still retains its 1965 configuration. Like its sister car, Columbia River, it provides sleeping quarters for the train service personnel who make traveling aboard a Union Pacific special train such a memorable experience.
Each room features upper and lower berths, a sink and a toilet. There is a shower at each end of the car.
North Little Rock, Arkansas, was founded by a group of pioneers on the north bank of the Arkansas River in anticipation of the coming of the Cairo and Fulton Railroad. The area was called Argenta until 1873, when it was named Baring Cross, after the firm in England which provided funds for building the river bridge. After the Cairo and Fulton merger with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad in 1874, the town became known as North Little Rock. In 1917, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern merged with Missouri Pacific Railroad.
The North Little Rock rail yard complex is Union Pacific's second largest terminal, exceeded only by Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska. North Little Rock Yard served as the hub of the former Missouri Pacific Railroad, as well as being its largest locomotive maintenance center and heavy repair shop. Its 300-acre classification yard has room for 4,000 freight cars. It boasts the biggest and best-equipped shop in the railroad industry for heavy repair of locomotives. An 80-year-old shop building, originally designed and built for steam locomotives, was replaced in 1984 by a building big enough to enclose five football fields.
The shop building was named for Downing B. Jenks, a Yale graduate who became the youngest railroad president in the United States when he took over the Rock Island Railroad before moving to the Missouri Pacific in 1961. He is credited with the transformation of Missouri Pacific "from weakling to mighty railroad."