Sorry that the UP is reducing the scope of their preserved fleet but glad they aren't simply scrapping everything. I suppose that sooner or later the economics of it had to face new realities.

From what I see happening in Union Pacific boardroom politics -- I think it commendable that people in authority saw how the wind was likely to blow, and did the right thing regarding preservation under controlled conditions in a fully adequate timeframe.

It's not like something from their actual heritage fleet is leaving Cheyenne for good, I sort of doubt this F unit would have gotten new UP paint as things were. Best that it goes to a home that'll take care of and run it!

The beautiful ABA set of E units (rebuilt internally to GP38-2 specs), cherried out and painted UP, still sits dead and drained in the Cheyoming roundhouse. Last year I asked Ed Dickens about them, and he said that the company hasn't authorized one red cent in expendeture for them in years. (What a crying shame.)

It was lucky to have survived at all.

C&NW #401 shared a dubious distinction of having spent time interned at Oelwein, Chicago and Cheyenne. Unlike her two sisters who went to the Royal Gorge, she got to spend more time sitting at Cheyenne than she ever spent in C&NW's Presidential service, but at least she didn't get cut up like two other siblings.

Boone has its work cut out for them, as #401 was robbed of many components over the years and won't be a quick fix. It's a big bite for them to chew.

Indeed.
One of them pulled the "Preamble Express," which was the test train for the Freedom Train: https://freedomtrain.org/preamble-express-consist-locomotive-951-union-pacific.htm

TVRM has two C&NW F-7s that they rescued a few years back, these were owned by URHS and painted as "Lehigh Valley" units, then leased to Iowa Pacific, who then abandoned them in Mississippi, and URHS couldn't afford to bring them back. Not sure what plans TVRM has for them, they had been operational but were vandalized. https://railfan.com/former-cnw-f-units- ... ee-valley/

When I was railfanning Chicago in 1980, the C&NW F-unit fleet was one of the highlights - everything else was F40C's or BN E-units, a couple Crandall cabs.

But even then, they looked just grimy and beat. I don't know if UP ever did any serious work on this unit or if it was just stored in amber. That TRAINS photo doesn't inspire confidence, but it's better than a cutting torch.

We got a couple ex-VIA F's for one of our clients, both are back up and running, but even when we inspected them, the hits just kept on coming. Some of the well-hidden patches in the electrical cabinet, sporadic main generator faults, and what lurked deep under Bondo and fiberglass patches..... before you know it you've almost made a new carbody. Worth it? Yeah.

The best part of that photo for them is that it got MOVED. UP gave us more grief than anybody else on a three-railroad move of our F's, all due to alignment control couplers.

UP will put on a clinic hosted by Ed Dickens at the Rocky Mountain Train Show in Denver, on April 1 and 2, at 1PM both days. This is billed as covering the UP Steam Shop and the Big Boy, and it is always a good time to ask him anything that you might be curious about. (I'm planning to attend on Saturday. If any RyPNers besides yours truly are there, please look me up. I'm the old grouch wearing a #6 hat.)

The executive train F7's looked as gritty as the rest of the C&NW F7 fleet until the idea to spruce a few of them up came along in '79 or '80. While all of the "400's" were old birds by then, they were made quite presentable and generally kept clean on a road not known at the time for exceptional locomotive grooming. Whenever I would cross paths with them, I was struck by how good they looked as long as you kept a little distance (something also true of other, more well-known resuscitated locomotives).

If UP did anything mechanically to #401 after she was moved out to Cheyenne, I am unaware of it. She was essentially drab but complete when I last saw her at Oelwein in 1993, but looked like a down-and-out bag lady at Cheyenne four or five years later. Being that all the other Presidential F's were off the property by 2001 and many UP personalities have come and gone, it is a bit surprising she still exists at all.

Every Class 1 seems to have the occasional moment of benign tolerance for moving stuff like this, with varying windows of opportunity. Moving #401 along with the equipment earmarked for RRHMA was a good opportunity for everyone concerned despite the glitch that occurred in Council Bluffs, and I sort of wonder if she'd have made it out of Cheyenne alive had she not been included with the more notable UP equipment that was hauled to Silvis.