Last week, before I chased 3985 out of town, I noticed four cabooses, all DRGW lineage, parked west of the roundhouse. Now next to it is another rotary plow (reportedly acquired from Portola, but I'm not sure). Now, behind the steam shop, sits two heavyweight passenger cars in SP Daylight livery- looks like an obs and a diner (not too sure). Any idea why all of a sudden UP is collecting old rolling stock like we model railroaders buy old stuff at swap meets? Incidentally, that WP caboose seen in the consist behind 3985 is supposed to go back to Portola- it looks real sharp! I'll try to get pics & post 'em here, if Jeremy doesn't beat me to it.
Well, AFAIK, Steve Lee, the Steam Crew manager is adding these pieces to his collection. What he plans to do with them, I have no clue.... May know more when they arrive back from Portland in a couple weeks. I have shots of all the stuff that showed up. but ony this one uploaded: This one's pure Grande! (under that fading black paint)
The WP caboose is back in Portola. It was requested by Omaha to accompany the hospital train that brought the equipment back to Omaha. The SP passenger cars were from the wreck train in Roseville. Last I heard those cars were to be restored and added to the passenger fleet as time permits. The rotary came west when we had a bad snow year, 1994 IIRC. It was stored at Roseville for several years. When the Portola Railroad Museum traded equipment with the Bay Area Electric Museum we gathered cars from the area that UP wanted moved to Omaha. In late August the PRM moved the equipment to Omaha with two members who are UP employees. Regardless of how UP looks in the model press, they have been very good to the PRM and we are working at keeping it that way. The cabooses were gathered up in Salt Lake or Ogden and added to the train. Hope this answers some of your questions. Greg Elems
Nice to see more stuff that is escaping the scrapper! Will be fun to see what is done with those. It should be first class!! Boxcab E50
That explains quite a bit. Interestingly enough, the "new" rotary is presently coupled up to the rotary support cars outside the roundhouse, while the other rotary is inside the roundhouse.
