Chronological History:
Union Pacific in North Platte
1853
Legislation provided for a Pacific Railroad Survey to find the best route
for a transcontinental railroad.
July 1, 1862
President Abraham Lincoln signs the Pacific RailroadAct creating the Union
Pacific Railroad Company.
December 2, 1863
Groundbreaking in Omaha, Nebraska for the Union Pacific Railroad.
July 2, 1864
President Lincoln signs bill doubling the land grants and liberalizing the
financing for Union and Central Pacific.
July 10, 1865
First rail is laid at Omaha, Nebraska.
August 1866
Grading is completed through the Platte Valley, to Julesburg, Colorado. Grenville
Dodge sets aside land for a town and division point at Mile Post 290.9.
December 3, 1866
The first train enters the "hell on wheels" construction camp known
as North Platte. Henry Stanley, special correspondent for the St. Louis Missouri
Democrat reports, "Every gambler in the Union seems to have steered
his course for North Platte, and every known game under the sun is played
here. The days of Pike's Peak and California are revived. Every house is a
saloon, and every saloon is a gambling den. Revolvers are in great requisition.
Breadless youths imitate to the life the peculiar swagger of the devil-may-care
bullwhacker and blackleg. On account of the immense freighting done to Idaho,
Montana, Utah, Dakota, and Colorado, hundreds of bullwackers walk about and
turn the one street into a perfect Babel. Old gamblers who reveled in the
glorious days of 'flush times' in the gold districts declare that this town
outstrips them all yet."
Union Pacific has a fleet of 16 locomotives, 200 platform cars, 12 passenger cars, and the Lincoln Car, converted for business car use. Casement Brothers have six locomotives plus boarding cars for use in track laying.
December 31, 1866
Tracks are laid to O'Fallon's Bluffs.
January 2, 1867
Mainline operations into North Platte officially open.
1868
The North Platte twenty-stall roundhouse complex is built at a cost of $300,000. The roundhouse will be the site of an Indian peace committee meeting. The first meeting of Free Masons in North Platte takes place in the loft of the roundhouse, which was built to conceal a troop of cavalry in the event of trouble during the Indian peace meetings.
North Platte named division point for Lodge Pole Division extending 282 miles to Laramie.
May 10, 1869
The Golden Spike is driven at Promontory Summit, Utah. The cost of the rail
line from Omaha to Promontory Summit is $59 million.
1872
Grand Duke Alexis of Russia and party came to North Platte via the Union Pacific
Railroad for a buffalo hunt with William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.
1875
Lodge Pole Division is changed to Mountain Division.
June 2, 1876
A special train for Jarrett & Palmer (theater owners, traveling with three Shakespearean actors) making a trip from New York to San Francisco attains a speed of 72 miles per hour between Grand Island and North Platte on a track with a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour.
January 24, 1880
Union Pacific Railroad merges with the Kansas Pacific and Denver Pacific gaining
access to Kansas City and Denver via Cheyenne. The resulting company is the
Union Paicific Railway Company.
February 1878-1913
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody resides and organizes his Wild West
show from his ranch, Scouts Rest, north of town. The Wild West show was inaugurated
in Omaha in 1883 with real cowboys and real Indians portraying the "real
West." The show spent 10 of its 30 years in Europe. In 1887 Buffalo Bill
was a feature attraction at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. At the World's
Columbian Exposition in 1893, only Little Egypt's gyrations rivalled the Wild
West Show as the talk of Chicago.
1893
Union Pacific, unable to meet its fixed charges, is placed into the hands
of receivers. North Platte town residents gather at the roundhouse, ready
to depart by train to escape a prairie fire.
1896
William Jennings Bryan makes a whistle stop in North Platte during his campaign.
November 1, 1897
A group of investors from Kuehn Loeb & Company, including E.H. Harriman,
purchases the Union Pacific Railway main line at auction in Omaha.
1904
Theodore Roosevelt makes a whistle stop tour.
1907-1922
The North Platte branch is constructed from O'Fallon to South Morrill.
1908
William Howard Taft makes a whistle stop tour.
1910
Construction of a second mainline through North Platte.
1910
A North Platte storehouse for company materials is built for $5,700.
1910
Union Pacific completes a 70-mile connection between Topeka, Kansas and
Upland, Kansas.
1913
A North Platte twenty-eight stall roundhouse is built at a cost of
$171,000; a power plant at a cost of $36,000; and a four-track conveyor-style
coaling station with four 100-ton pockets, one over each track, at a cost of $70,000.
1914
Twenty-five miles of track are completed, from Hastings to Gibbon, Nebraska.
1915
Union Pacific regains control of the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad.
November 17, 1915
The North Platte Union Pacific Hotel and Depot burns.
1917
Double mainline is constructed from North Platte to Cheyenne.
March 20, 1918
Dedication of an 80' x 263' brick North Platte passenger station on the
south side of the tracks along Front Street, adjacent to the business
district, replacing the wooden frame depot which burned down in 1915.
July 13, 1918 - September 1, 1919
The American Red Cross affiliated canteen operates out of the Union Pacific
North Platte freight house, serving 113,190 servicemen.
1923
North Platte shop forces form the Union Pacific North Platte shop
marching band.
1923
President Harding makes 2 stops in North Platte (going west to the coast and then traveling east on
his funeral train).
February 12, 1924
Union Pacific Oldtimers' Club No. Eight is organized at North Platte.
December 6, 1926
Union Pacific Ladies' Auxiliary No. Eight is organized at North Platte.
1927
A new bridge consisting of forty 50-foot spans is built over the North Platte
River.
February 1934
Union Pacific introduces the nation's first distillate-powered streamlined
pasenger train the M-10000.
1937
A new machine and erecting shop is built for $225,000, with an additional
$100,000 spent for tools at North Platte.
September 30, 1937
Native son William Jeffers becomes president of the Union Pacific Railroad.
April 27, 1939
Paramount Pictures' premiere train for the Cecil B. DeMille movie "Union Pacific" arrives in North Platte with movie star passengers
Barbara Stanwyck, George Raft, Robert Preston, and a host of others.
April 27, 1939
Union Pacific's "Old Time Train," along with the Cecil B. DeMille
Special, arrives in North Platte on the way to Omaha for the premier of the
movie, "Union Pacific." Among the dignitaries on board were Barbara
Stanwyck, Robert Preston and George Raft.
1939
North Platte branch is relocated for projected Kingsley dam.
1939
PFE ices 136,215 cars of fruits and vegetables at the world's largest icing platform, which is 3,600 feet long. Located between two tracks, it is able to handle 80 spotted cars along both sides. Sixty thousand tons of ice is harvested from North Platte and Gothenburg.
1939
Union Pacific has 1,000 employees in North Platte, with a payroll of
$2,076,812.00 The yard encompasses 47.75 miles of track, 19.24 miles of passing track, and 2.66 miles of industry track. The stockyards east of town covers 640 acres, and in 1938 3,353 carloads of livestock are fed.
December 25, 1941 - April 1, 1946
The North Platte Canteen, located in the passenger depot, serves more than 6
million members of the armed forces. The record number of servicemen served
is 2,000 soldiers, from four troop trains, within a 30-minute period.
December 5, 1944
Union Pacific's last steam locomotive, UP 844, is built by ALCO.
September 1, 1948
The new $750,000 North Platte Freight Depot opens. Three 1,200-foot
covered platforms serve the station's six tracks, and four loading doors serve for
trucking operations and warehouse space.
October 1948
Dieselization between North Platte and Kansas City starts with the ALCO PAs.
October 20, 1948
UP 9018 drops its firebox crown sheet due to low water, killing the 3-man crew at Upland Kansas. This was the last boiler explosion on the UP.
November 1948
Opening of the west retarder yard at North Platte. The $3,500,000 project has a
5-mile retarder yard with 31,000 feet of new mainline and approximately 51
miles of additional yard trackage, with 40 classification tracks in the bowl.
President Bill Jeffers dedicates the yard. The humping operations machine
installed is of a pinball style. This machine from North Platte was later
donated to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
1949
Mainline relocation change through North Platte.
January 1954
Delivery of the new EMD GP-9 1,750 hp locomotives to the North Platte-Kansas City service.
March 1954
UP 9000 class steam locomotives are put into storage at North Platte, Kansas
City and Marysville. The last five UP 5090 class steam locomotives are scrapped at Denver.
1955
Union Pacific introduces 35 new astra-dome cars to the streamliners.
September 1957
The First Hy-rail station wagon on UP.
November 16, 1958
Test run of Union Pacific's turbine locomotives.
1966-1970
Construction of the North Platte Eastbound Hump and Diesel Shop, at a cost of
$40 million.
1967
Union Pacific pays taxes in the amount of $230,657 to Lincoln County, and
has a payroll of $10,592,000 for approximately 1,300 employees.
1968
Robert Kennedy makes a whistle stop tour in North Platte.
October 19, 1968
President Edd H. Bailey donates locomotive UP 3977, the "Challenger" steam
locomotive to the City of North Platte for display at Cody Park.
October 25, 1968
Frank E. Barnett, chairman of the Union Pacific executive committee, christens the new $12.5 million "Bailey Yard" facility in honor of UP President, Edd H. Bailey. The 800-acre site consists of a six-track receiving yard which is 1.55 miles in length and leads off the eastbound mainline at Birdwood. It has a 32-foot high hump for gravity-feeding cars into classification tracks in the bowl, and dual hump facilities including twin towers, twin tracks over the hump and twin timing slabs and a retarder system to permit simultaneous humping of two trains. The 62-track classification bowl is one-half mile in length, has a six-track departure yard and is 1.55 miles in length. Physical operation of the plant is controlled by IBM's 1800 process control computer. The yard is
designed to handle a traffic increase of up to 30% over 1968's levels.
Quick Facts about Bailey Yard
1969
An Automatic Car Identification (ACI) system is installed.
March 1971
The North Platte Red Barn Store opens.
April 1971
The $10.5 million diesel shop facility built by Morrison Knudsen Construction Company opens. At the time, it is the largest running repair shop in the world. The L-shaped 40' x 460' structure's dimensions are large enough to house three regulation football fields with space left over. It is designed to service a fleet of 600 diesel locomotives per month, with a maximum of 30 locomotives at one time inside the shop.
Over 100,000 cubic yards of earth is excavated during the construction of the facility. Materials used in construction of the main shop include 13,000 cubic yards of concrete, 1,050,000 pounds of reinforcing steel, and 2,500,000 pounds of structural steel. More than 26 miles of new railroad are built and nearly eight miles of piping are installed to carry lube oil, gas, oxygen, acetylene, treated radiator water, steam, compressed air, and other services to work locations within the shop.
Eleven parallel tracks reach through the building, providing one track for incoming parts and material, two tracks for inspection work, three tracks for light running repairs, four tracks for component change out, and one track for wheel trueing work.
The installation of completely industrial lighting provides 45-foot candle intensity both over and under all platforms. Moisture-proof fixtures have been used throughout the building, and shockproof fixtures are installed in areas subject to vibration.
A locomotive fueling complex located northeast of the main shop building consists of four 500-foot-long service tracks equipped with two servicing manifolds, inspection pits and two gantry-type sanding cranes. Along each manifold there are 34 service outlets. Fuel can be pumped at a rate of 1,000 gallons per minute from either manifold.
The wastewater collection system is made up of over 2,200 feet of pipe, from six to fifteen inches in diameter. It gathers runoff and drainage water from the diesel refueling facility, the diesel shop, and the locomotive washing complex, and carries it to the water treatment plant. Oil and other waste are then separated from the collected water in the plant and the clean water is discharged into the lagoon west of the shop.
Elmer C. Beig is named the first superintendent of shops at North Platte, and 130 families are transferred to North Platte to work in the diesel shop.
May 1, 1971
Union Pacific streamliner passenger service ends.
1971
The North Platte roundhouse, powerhouse, and machine shop are razed.
1972
George McGovern makes a whistle stop tour in North Platte.
October 1973
The $1 million mechanical North Platte ONE-SPOT car repair facility opens.
November 1, 1973
Demolition of the North Platte passenger depot commences.
1973
The PFE icing platforms are torn down.
July 23, 1975
A public mini-park is dedicated at the site of the North Platte Canteen, at milepost 284.1.
1975
Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) is installed through North Platte.
March 1979
Opening of a $1.5 million North Platte communication and multi-purpose building with a microwave tower. The building houses the terminal superintendent's office, a yard office, and a dispatcher's office which handles the territory from Cheyenne to Omaha.
1979
North Platte builds an additional fuel storage tank of 43,320 BBL
(2,382,600 gallons), 88 feet in diameter and 40 feet tall.
July 20, 1980
President John C. Kenefick dedicates the new westbound hump yard. The
$40.5 million project covers 500 acres and has a 50-track bowl connected to eight receiving tracks and ten departure tracks. One hundred and three miles of railroad track is laid. The bowl has a capacity of 2,300 cars. The power lead overpass also opens, a design idea of President Kenefick's. The new westbound yard is more efficient than the 1948 hump by at least 30 minutes per train. The hump is built side by side, due to the grade of .09 from east to west and prevailing westerly winds, both of which are construction concerns.
1978-1981
Construction of the North Platte Westbound Hump Yard, at a cost of $50 million.
1984
Construction of the $915,000 North Platte complex for the cleaning of mechanical
refrigerated cars.
August 1985
President John Kenefick donates the UP 6922, the "World's Largest Diesel
Locomotive," to the City of North Platte.
1988-1991
North Platte's construction of westbound and eastbound fueling, diesel service pits and coal yard expansion, at a cost of $14.5 million.
1988
The Union Pacific Oldtimers and Junior Oldtimers Clubs reorganize and become
the United Employees Club.
October 1989
North Platte train dispatching forces move to the Omaha Harriman Dispatch
Center.
1990
Construction of the Buffalo Bill overpass at North Platte.
1992
Expansion of the westbound coal yard and installation of Computer Aided
Dispatching (CAD), at a cost of $5.5 million.
1993
North Platte's construction of four additional westbound run-through
tracks, one new westbound receiving track, one new eastbound receiving track and signal modifications to allow reverse running capabilities, at a total cost of $6.0 million.
June 1, 1993
Establishment of North Platte's Bailey Command Center.
April 1994
A LAN computer system is installed in North Platte.
June 1994
The North Platte eastbound fueling facility opens tracks number 5 and 6.
August 1994
OBT is installed in NOP Manager Yard Operations vehicles.
August 1, 1994
EDCS, a barcode timekeeping system, is placed on line at the North Platte
Diesel Shop.
September 28, 1994
The Baldrige National Quality Award site visit takes place.
October 20, 1994
Third quarter income is $1.02 per share, USPCI is sold, and operating ratio increases to 77.1 from 80.4.
October 31, 1994
Union Pacific makes an offer to buy ATSF.
November 10, 1994
Union Pacific makes an offer to buy ATSF for 17.50 per share, vs Burlington
Northern's offer of 13.50 per share, with trust voting 3.34 billion.
December 15, 1994
The Interstate Commerce Commission okays UP to have voting stock in CNW (UP owns 30%) and the placement of two
directors on the board.
January 1, 1995
The Guiness Book of Records lists Bailey Yard as the world's largest classification yard.
February 11, 1995
The west servicing facility opens.
Feburary 1995
UP drops its offer to buy Santa Fe.
March 12, 1995
Union Pacific announces plans to purchase all CNW stock.
April 24, 1995
The CNW operating department starts cutting over to UP.
April 25, 1995
Eastbound fuel racks 3/4 cut in 5/6 tracks swung over have 1 thru 6 in
operation.
April 25, 1995
Opening of the third mainline from 283 east 13.7 miles.
August 3, 1995
Union Pacific and Southern Pacific announce their agreement to merge.
September 27, 1995
Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe reach a comprehensive agreement to preserve and intensify rail competition following the UP/SP merger.
November 30, 1995
Union Pacifics files its application with the Interstate Commerce Commission to acquire Southern Pacific.
July 3, 1996
The Surface Transportation Board votes to approve the UP/SP merger.
July 27, 1996
Dick Davidson is elected as Union Pacific Corporation's COO, and Ron Burns is elected as Union Pacific Railroad's president.
September 11, 1996
The Union Pacific-Southern Pacific merger takes effect.
November 6, 1996
Ron Burns resigns as CEO and president of Union Pacific Railroad. Jerry Davis is named president and COO of the railroad. Dick Davidson, president and COO of UP Corporation and Chairman of UPRR, is named CEO of the railroad.
November 21, 1996
Dick Davidson is elected chairman and CEO of Union Pacific Corporation, succeeding the retiring Drew Lewis.
January 1, 1997
Missouri Pacific Railroad is legally merged into Union Pacific Railroad, with UPRR as the surviving corporation.
September 15, 1998
Ike Evans is named president and COO of Union Pacific Railroad. Jerry Davis is named vice chairman of the railroad.
