Did Union Pacific EMD E7's Haul Freight Also?

Dec 29, 2006 3 Replies

Did the UP E-7 diesel engines haul freight or were they used for passenger service only?



Thanks



Jim


snipped-for-privacy@aim.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@k21g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Engines are engines when you're a train master and you've got to get some trains moving. Freight engines are sometimes put on passenger trains and passenger engines are put on freight trains.

If you're a decade-based modeller, you'll want to try to keep things as close to reality as possible.

Puckdropper

If they were ever used for freight, it would have been in a very rare motive power crisis. Consider: o The UP had continued to have a robust passenger business into the late

1950's: the UP bought new dome cars as late as 1958, the City of Denver / City of Portland were not combined until 1959 and the Cities of LA / SF in late 1960. o The UP needed good passenger power and returned the remaining E-7's to EMD in the early 1960's for upgrading to E-9's. o The 13 UP E-7's were geared for 90 MPH and did not have dynamic brakes, making them less suitable for freight service. o When the UP reassigned its Alco PA's to freight service, it re-reared them for lower speed service.

In the late 1960's / 1970 the UP did use E-8's in mixed train service. They were required to keep running some passenger trains that were down to a single baggage car and single coach. The UP began treating these trains as mixed trains, and photos show 2 or 3 E units pulling the two passenger cars followed by 20 or so freight cars. Geezer

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