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Western Pacific Railroad

Western Pacific Railroad

:Western Pacific redirects here. For the airline company see Western Pacific Airlines. Western Pacific Airlines The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It is now part of Union Pacific Railroad (UP).

History

Founded in 1903, the Western Pacific Railroad was built as a portion of the Gould family's efforts to create a transcontinental railroad in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the American West’s most popular railroads, the WP attracted rail enthusiasts from around the world. From 1910 to 1982, its diverse route provided scenic views of the San Francisco Bay Area, the mountain communities of the famous Feather River Route, and the deserts of Nevada and Utah. The Western Pacific originated in 1900 as the Alameda and San Joaquin Railroad. The railroad which would become the Western Pacific was financed and built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, under the direction of George Jay Gould I, to provide a standard gauge track connection to the Pacific Coast. In 1909, it became the last railroad completed into California. In 1931, WP opened a second mainline north out of the Feather River Canyon to reach the Great Northern Railway in northern California. This route, called the "Highline", joined the Oakland to Salt Lake City mainline at a junction known as the Keddie Wye. Considered the heart of the railroad, this unique structure featured two steel trestles and and a tunnel, all forming a triangle of intersecting track. triangle of intersecting track systems.]] One of the more well-known aspects of the Western Pacific was its operation of the California Zephyr passenger train, in conjunction with the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. The WP handled the "Silver Lady" from Oakland, California, to Salt Lake City, Utah. Since it competed directly with the long-entrenched and much larger Southern Pacific Railroad, the WP became a company known both for its innovation and for wringing every dollar out of an investment. It was the first large railroad in the West to eliminate steam locomotives in favor of diesels, then kept some of these early diesels running in regular service long after they had been retired elsewhere. It embraced computerized dispatching, concrete crossties and innovative equipment to protect customer shipments, at the same time fielding antique wooden cabooses and rebuilding outmoded freight cars. caboose, is seen in a September, 1945 builder's photo.]] The Western Pacific owned several connecting short-line railroads. The largest and most well-known was the Sacramento Northern Railway, which at one time reached from San Francisco to Chico, California. Others included the Tidewater Southern Railway and the Deep Creek Railroad. The Western Pacific was acquired in 1983 by Union Pacific Corporation, the owner of its long-time rival, the Union Pacific Railroad. In July 2005, Union Pacific unveiled a brand new EMD SD70ACe locomotive, Union Pacific 1983, in full Western Pacific colors as part of a new heritage program.

References


- [http://www.wprrhs.org/wphistory.html Western Pacific Railroad Historical Society]
- [http://www.wplives.com/history/index.html WP Lives website; Western Pacific History]
- [http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org/ National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin]
- [http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Encyclopedia.html Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History]
- [http://www.uprr.com/ Union Pacific Railroad]
- [http://www.uphs.org/ Union Pacific Historical Society]

See also


- California Zephyr
- Central Pacific Railroad
- Southern Pacific Railroad
- Union Pacific Railroad
- Western Refrigerator Line

External links


- [http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/photos/ Union Pacific Railroad photo gallery] — contains thousands of photographs from as early as 1860 taken by employees of the Union Pacific railroad.
- [http://UPRR.org/Museum/UPRR/ Union Pacific Railroad 19th Century Stereoview Exhibit] at the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum.
- [http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/d/DEEPCREEK.html Constructing Deep Creek Railroad]
- [http://www.wrm.org/about/sacramento_northern.htm History of the Sacramento Northern Railway] at the [http://www.wrm.org/ Western Railroad Museum] official website.
- [http://www.tidewatersouthern.com/ The Tidewater Southern Railway history pages] Western Refrigerator Line in 1974.]] 1974 at the Portola Railroad Museum in Portola, California.]] Category:Union Pacific Railroad

Western Pacific Airlines

Western Pacific Airlines took up service on April 28 1995 using eight Boeing 737-300 jets. The airline was formed in 1994 under the name Commercial Air but the name was changed to Western Pacific for marketing reasons. Originally, based at Colorado Springs airport flights were mostly west of the Mississippi River. Later its route system spread to the east coast and expanded on the west coast as new Boeing 737s were purchased. At times the airline leased Boeing 727s.

Color in the sky

The WestPac livery may be encountered on several aircraft in variations on the basic Western Pacific livery; however, most of the aircraft were painted in colorful schemes. They included advertisements for:
- Stardust Resort & Casino - Las Vegas, NV
- Purgatory Ski Resort - Durango, Colorado
- Casino Womack’s - Cripple Creek, CO
- Crested Butte Resort - Gunnison, CO
- The Broadmoor - Colorado Springs, CO
- Thrifty Car Rental - U.S. car rental chain
- ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Musuem of the American Cowboy - Colorado Springs, CO
- The Simpsons - FOX-TV Network’s hit television show
- Spirit of Durango - City of Durango, Colorado Board of Tourism
- Security Service Federal Credit Union - CO bank system
- Colorado Tech University - Denver, CO & Colorado Springs, CO
- Colorado Springs - City of Colorado Springs, CO Board of Tourism The company also had a variety of other schemes with no corporate affiliations or their own advertising. They were:
- Spring Fling Jet
- “Beat the System”
- Winter Wonder Plane
- Super Summer Saver Jet
- Future Logo Jet The promotion with Rupert Murdoch’s American FOX network was shown nationwide in September of 1995. During the episode, “Who Shot Mister Burns?” of The Simpsons, who ever phoned in with the answer or code won free travel or some other prize.

The declining years

Western Pacific was involved with a new commuter airline, Mountain Express, which was set up in 1996. With a network to over 20 destinations Western Pacific had been using leased Boeing 727s while awaiting the delivery of new Boeing 737-700s. The management then thought that Colorado Springs as its hub and corporate headquarters would be too small for operations in a few years. In reality, with the more competing carriers being in Denver, WestPac had a better chance of survival and better financial success if they had stayed at Colorado Springs. In late 1996, the airline moved its operations to Denver and put itself into direct competition with another low-cost carrier, Frontier Airlines and legacy carrier United Airlines. After a year, the carrier was filing for bankruptcy. Even a logo and scheme change could not save the airline. United Airlines attempted to buy the fledging carrier, but in the end, Frontier Airlines bought the airline and its routes. The corporate move was not the only factor in the airline’s demise. Competition from other carriers such as Southwest Airlines and others pushed it into oblivion.

Destinations


- Atlanta, Georgia
- Chicago, Illinois
- Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
- Houston, Texas
- Indianapolis, Indiana
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Los Angeles, California
- Nashville, Tennessee
- Newark, New Jersey
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Phoenix, Arizona
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Diego, California
- San Francisco, California
- San José, California
- Seattle, Washington
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Washington D.C.
- Wichita, Kansas

Fleet


- Boeing 737-300 - main equipment
- Boeing 727-200 - leased equipment
- Boeing 737-700 - on order at time of demise Category:Companies based in Colorado Category:Airlines of the United States Category:Defunct airlines of the United States

Class I railroad

A Class I railroad in the United States, or a Class I railway (also Class I rail carrier) in Canada, is one of the largest freight railroads, as classified based on operating revenue. Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III. The exact revenues required to be in each class have varied through the years, and they are now continuously adjusted for inflation.

Current criteria

As of 2004, a Class I railroad, as defined by the Surface Transportation Board, has an operating revenue exceeding $277.7 million. The exact setting of the cut-off figure has always been as much a political decision as anything else, as different rules apply to the different classes. For instance, in early 1991, Montana Rail Link and Wisconsin Central asked the Interstate Commerce Commission to raise the bar, then set at $93.5 million, to avoid being redesignated as Class I, due to extra costs and paperwork. The cutoff was raised at the end of 1992 to $250 million, dropping the Florida East Coast Railway to Class II (the Class II/III line stayed at $20 million). In Canada, a Class I railway is defined (as of 2004) as a company that has earned gross revenues exceeding $250 million for each of the previous two years. Currently seven United States railroads are classified as Class I. The two major players east of the Mississippi River are CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (the latter called "Norfolk Southern Combined Railroad Subsidiaries" by the AAR). West of the Mississippi, the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad cover roughly the same territory. The Kansas City Southern Railway is a smaller system, mainly forming part of the NAFTA Railway corridor from the Midwest into Mexico, and two subsidiaries of Canadian companies - the Grand Trunk Corporation, controlled by the Canadian National Railway, and the Soo Line Railroad, controlled by the Canadian Pacific Railway - are also considered Class I. The Grand Trunk Corporation includes two former Class I railroads - the Illinois Central Railroad and Grand Trunk Western Railroad - which still operate separately, but are reported as one unit. Two Canadian railways are currently Class I - the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. Those companies would be Class I by the U.S. definition. Two Mexican railroads would fit the definition if they were U.S. companies - Ferrocarril Mexicano and Grupo Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana; the latter is controlled by the Kansas City Southern Railway. Amtrak and VIA Rail provide intercity passenger service in the U.S. and Canada, but as they are not typical freight carriers, they are not classified.

History

The classification of U.S. railroads as Class I, II, or III was started by the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 1930s. Initially Class I railroads were defined as railroads with operating revenue of at least $1 million. There were 132 Class I railroads in 1939. The $1 million figure was used until 1956 (at which time there were 113 ); however, since that time, it has increased faster than inflation. In 1956 it was increased to $3 million. By 1963 the number of Class I railroads had dropped to 102. By 1965 the cut-off had increased to $5 million, to $10 million in 1976 and to $50 million in 1978, at which point only 41 railroads were still Class I. The Class III category was dropped in 1956, but reinstated in 1978. In 1979 all switching and terminal railroads, even those with Class I or Class II revenues, were redesignated as Class III. Nowadays, the Class II and Class III designations are rarely used. The Association of American Railroads instead splits non-Class I companies into three categories:
- Regional railroads operate at least 350 miles or make at least $40 million per year.
- Local railroads are non-regional railroads that engage in line-haul service.
- Switching and terminal railroads mainly switch cars between other railroads or provide service from other liens to a common terminal. The Surface Transportation Board continues to use Class II and Class III, as labor regulations are different for the two classes.

Consolidations

Over the years, many Class I railroads have merged to stave off bankruptcy or simply to increase profits. The following is a list of consolidations that have merged at least one Class I railroad into a larger one:
- July 1, 1967: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Air Line Railroad into Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
- 1968: New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad merge to become Penn Central
- 1970: Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Great Northern Railway, Northern Pacific Railway and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway all merge into Burlington Northern Railroad
- 1976: Central Railroad of New Jersey, Erie Lackawanna Railroad, Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, Lehigh Valley Railroad, Penn Central and Reading Railroad all merge into Conrail
- 1982: Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Seaboard Coast Line Railroad into Seaboard System Railroad
- 1982: Norfolk and Western Railroad and Southern Railway merge to form Norfolk Southern
- 1985: Milwaukee Road merged into Soo Line Railroad
- 1986: Seaboard System Railroad renamed CSX Transportation
- 1987: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Chesapeake and Ohio Railway merged into CSX Transportation
- 1988: Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and Southern Pacific Railroad merge, keeps Southern Pacific name
- 1995: Chicago and North Western Railway merges into Union Pacific Railroad
- 1995: Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and Burlington Northern Railroad merge to become Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway
- 1996: Southern Pacific Railroad merges into Union Pacific Railroad
- 1998: Conrail's main operations divided between CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern; Conrail continues as a CSX-NS joint venture for switching purposes

Table of Class I railroads by year

See also


- List of U.S. Class I railroads
- Timeline of U.S. Class I railroads

References

# Arrivals and Departures, Trains March 1991 # Arrivals and Departures, Trains November 1992 # Profiles of the regionals, Trains December 1991
- [http://www.aar.org/PubCommon/Documents/AboutTheIndustry/Statistics.pdf AAR - Class I Railroad Statistics] (PDF)
- [http://www.spikesys.com/Trains/fmly_tre.html The Family Tree of North American Railroads]
- [http://www.cta-otc.gc.ca/rail-ferro/finance/uca/1100_e.html Uniform Classification of Accounts and Related Railway Records (UCA)]. Retrieved April 24, 2005.
- Category:Former Class I railroads in the United States

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad is the largest railroad in the United States. Its primary AAR reporting mark is UP. Richard K. Davidson, who began his career as a Missouri Pacific brakeman in 1960, has headed Union Pacific Railroad since 1991 and parent Union Pacific Corporation since 1997. James R. Young is president and chief operating officer and Richard "Dick" K. Davidson is the CEO of the Railroad. The Union Pacific's route map covers most of the central and western United States, westward of Chicago and New Orleans. It has achieved this size thanks to purchasing a large number of other railroads; notable purchases include the Missouri Pacific, Chicago and North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and Southern Pacific (which itself was purchased by the Rio Grande before UP purchased it). Union Pacific's chief competitor is the BNSF Railway, which covers much of the same territory.

History

BNSF Railway The Union Pacific Railroad was incorporated on July 1, 1862 in the wake of the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. The first rails were laid in Omaha, Nebraska. They were part of the railroads which came together at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869 as the first transcontinental railroad in North America. Subsequently the Union Pacific took over the Utah Central extending south through Salt Lake City, and the Utah & Northern, extending from Ogden through Idaho into Montana, and it built or absorbed local lines, which gave it access to Denver and to Portland, Oregon, and the Pacific Northwest. It acquired the Kansas Pacific (originally called the Union Pacific, Eastern Division, though in essence a separate railroad). It also owned narrow gauge trackage into the heart of the Colorado Rockies and a standard gauge line south from Denver across New Mexico into Texas. Union Pacific was entangled in the Credit Mobilier scandal of 1872. The railroad's early troubles led to bankruptcy during the 1870s, the result of which was reorganization of the Union Pacific Railroad as the Union Pacific Railway on January 24, 1880. The new company also declared bankruptcy, in 1893, but emerged on July 1, 1897, reverting again to the original name, Union Pacific Railroad. Such minor changes in corporate titles were a common result of reorganization after bankruptcy among American railroads. The recovered railroad was strong enough to take control of Southern Pacific Railroad in 1901 and then was ordered in 1913 by the U.S. Supreme Court to surrender control of the same. The Union Pacific Railroad also founded the Sun Valley resort in Idaho. In 1996, the UP finally acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad in a transaction that was envisioned nearly a century earlier. From 1948 to the early 1970s the UP operated a series of gas turbine-electric locomotives. No other railroad in the world operated turbines on such a scale. At one point, UP claimed that the turbines hauled ten percent of the railroad's freight. They were retired due to rising fuel costs. Two of them can now be seen in museums. UP has the headquarters of the railroad located in Omaha, Nebraska since its inception and moved in 2003 into the recently completed Union Pacific Center, also in Omaha.

Union Pacific Corporation

In 1986 Union Pacific purchased Overnite Transportation, a fairly major less-than-truckload shipping carrier. Union Pacific divested itself of Overnite Trucking through an IPO in late 2003 but still owned a sizable stake until UPS agreed to purchase Overnite in May 2005 for $1.25 billion. That same year, the Union Pacific Corporation was created as a holding company for Union Pacific and its related properties, initially including the railroad and Overnite. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Union Pacific Corporation purchased several non-railroad companies, such as Skyway Freight Systems of Watsonville, California and United States Pollution Control, Inc., but by 2000, following the accession of Richard K. Davidson as CEO of the Corporation, it had divested itself of all non-railroad properties except for Overnite Trucking, and its holding company for logistical technology, Fenix Enterprises. The Corporation was located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania until 1997, when Richard K. Davidson announced that the headquarters of the Corporation was moving to Dallas in September of that year. Upon the sale of Skyway and the impending divestiture of Overnite, however, the corporate headquarters were moved to Omaha to join the headquarters of the railroad only two years later, in 1999.

Current Trackage

Primarily concentrated west of the Mississippi River, the Union Pacific Railroad directly owns and operates track in 23 U.S. states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. For administrative purposes, the Union Pacific’s track network is divided into 21 “service units”: Cheyenne, Chicago, Council Bluffs, Commuter Operations, Denver, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Kansas City, Livonia, Los Angeles, North Little Rock, North Platte, Portland, Roseville, San Antonio, Saint Louis, Tucson, Twin Cities, Utah, and Wichita. Each “service unit” is further divided into many different subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile mainlines to 10-mile branch-lines. Not including second, third and fourth main line trackage, yard trackage, and siding trackage, the Union Pacific directly operates some 36,206 miles (58,364 kilometers) of track as of March, 24, 2000. When the additional tracks are counted, however, the amount of track that the Union Pacific has direct control over rises to 54,116 miles (87,091 kilometers). Union Pacific has also been able to reach agreements with competing railroads, mostly BNSF, that allows the railroad to operate its own trains with its own crews on hundreds of miles of competing railroads’ main tracks. Furthermore, due to the practice of locomotive leasing and sharing undertaken by the Class 1 Railways, Union Pacific locomotives occasionally show up on competitors' tracks throughout the United States, Canada and most recently, Mexico.

Yards and Facilities

Because of the enormity of the Union Pacific, hundreds of yards throughout the Union Pacific’s rail network are needed to effectively handle the daily transport of goods from one place to another. Among the more prominent rail yards in Union Pacific’s system include:
- Bailey Yard, the largest railroad classification yard in the world, located in North Platte, Nebraska.
- The Hinkle Locomotive Service and Repair Facility, the largest locomotive facility along the Union Pacific, in Hinkle, Oregon.
- J.R. Davis Yard, the largest rail facility on the United States’ west coast, in Roseville, California.
- Jenks Shop, one of the largest locomotive overhaul and maintenance facilities in the world, located in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
- Global III Intermodal Facility, a critical interchange hub and loading/unloading terminal for intermodal shipments moving through the Chicago metropolitan area, in Rochelle, Illinois.

Union Pacific Police Department

Rochelle, Illinois gang held up a Union Pacific train, this posse was organized to give chase. L to R: Standing, Unidentified; On horse, George Hiatt, T. Kelliher, Joe Lefors, H. Davis, S. Funk, Thomas Jefferson Carr. [http://www.wyomingtalesandtrails.com/butch2.html] ]] Union Pacific, like most other major railroads, maintains a functioning police department staffed with Special Agents with jurisdiction over crimes against the railroad. Special Agents have federal and state arrest powers and can enforce laws even off railroad property. Special Agents typically investigate major incidents such as derailments, sabotage, grade crossing accidents and hazardous material accidents and minor issues such as trespassing on the railroad right of way, vandalism/graffiti, and theft of company property or customer product. Special Agents often coordinate and liaise with local, state, and federal law enforcement on issues concerning the railroad and are dispatched nationally through UP Headquarters in Omaha. The Union Pacific Police Department and the term "Special Agent" were models for the FBI when it was created in 1907.

Paint and colors

FBI, 1991.]] The Union Pacific's basic paint scheme for its diesel-electric locomotives is the oldest still in use by a major railroad. The bottom two-thirds of the locomotive body is painted Armour Yellow (so-named because it was the color used by the Armour meat company). A thin band of red divides this from the Harbor Mist Gray (a fairly light gray color) used for the body and roof above that point. A red line is also painted at the bottom of the locomotive body, but this color will gradually become yellow as new FRA regulations for reflectorized tape come into effect in 2005; the trucks, underframe, fuel tanks and everything else beneath that line are also painted Harbor Mist Gray. Lettering and numbering is also in red, with black outlines. Some locomotives (historically passenger locomotives, and some recent units from 2000 on) have white-outlined blue "wings" on the nose. More recently, some units have been repainted with a large, billowing Stars and Stripes with the corporate motto "Building America" on the side, where the 'UNION PACIFIC' lettering is normally positioned. The first version of this scheme was used on the UP's streamlined trains in the 1930s, although a brown was used instead of grey. Passenger cars, cabooses and other non-freight equipment is also painted in a similar fashion. The steam locomotive paint schemes are unique in their own way. Up until the mid-1940s, all steam locomotives on the Union Pacific were painted in a similar fashion: the smokebox and firebox were painted graphite and the rest was painted jet black. In the 1940s, many passenger locomotives were repainted to look somewhat similar to the flashy new E and F units being delivered. These locomotives were painted graphite all over, with one dark grey strip running alongside the running board and in the middle of the tender. This dark grey strip was outlined in yellow, and all lettering inside the strip was yellow also. Near the end of the steam locomotive's reign on the Union Pacific, these locomotives were repainted in the same color scheme as the earlier freight locomotives. In the second half of 2005, Union Pacific unveiled a new set of EMD SD70ACe locomotives in "Heritage Colors," painted in schemes reminiscent of railroads acquired by UP since the 1980s. The engine numbers match the year that the predecessor railroad was absorbed into the Union Pacific. The three locomotives already repainted commemorate the Missouri Pacific (UP 1982), Western Pacific (UP 1983), and Missouri-Kansas-Texas (UP 1988) railroads. A further three engines will also be painted in the colors of other UP predecessors, which are Chicago and North Western (bought by UP in 1995) and Southern Pacific (1996), Denver and Rio Grande Western (which had already a part of Southern Pacific from 1988). These three locomotives are expected to be painted in Q1 of 2006. Union Pacific recently unveiled another specially painted SD70ACe. UP 4141 has "George Bush 41" on the sides and its paint scheme resembles that of Air Force One.

Surviving Merger Partner Locomotives

As of July 31, 2005, Union Pacific operates as many as 152 Southern Pacific, 36 St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt), 6 Chicago and North Western, and 13 Denver and Rio Grande Western locomotives still in their former railroad's paint. In addition, many locomotives have been "patch" renumbered by UP, varying in the degree of the previous railroads' logos being eradicated, but always with a yellow patch applied over the locomotive's former number and a new Union Pacific number applied on the cab. This allows UP to number locomotives into its roster, yet it takes less time and money than it does to perform a complete repaint into UP colors. As of July 31, 2005, Union Pacific rostered a grand total of 492 "patches", consisting of 37 Chicago and North Western patches, 445 Southern Pacific patches, 47 St. Louis Southwestern patches, and 23 Denver and Rio Grande Western patches.

Historic locomotives

Air Force One] The UP, uniquely among modern railroads, maintains a small fleet of historic locomotives for special trains and hire. All historic Locomotives are stored in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the roundhouse. The roundhouse is just south of the historic depot.
- UP 844 is a 4-8-4 Northern type express passenger steam locomotive (class FEF-3). It was the last steam locomotive built for the Union Pacific and has been in continuous service since its 1944 delivery. A mechanical failure in which the boiler tubes from the 1996 overhaul, being made of the wrong material, collapsed inside the boiler and put the steam locomotive out of commission on June 24 1999. The Union Pacific steam crew successfully repaired it and returned it to service on November 10 2004. It is the only steam locomotive to never be officially retired from a North American Class I railroad.
- UP 3985 is a 4-6-6-4 Challenger class dual-service steam locomotive. It is the largest steam locomotive still in operation anywhere in the world. Withdrawn from service in 1962, it was stored in the Union Pacific roundhouse until 1975, when it was moved to the employee's parking lot outside the Cheyenne, Wyoming depot until 1981 when a team of employee volunteers restored it to service.
- UP 951, 949 and 963B are a trio of streamlined General Motors Electro-Motive Division E9 passenger locomotives built in 1955. They are used to haul the UP business cars and for charter specials. While externally they are 1955 vintage locomotives, the original twin engines have been replaced with single EMD 16-645E 3000 hp (2.2 MW) units and the electrical and control equipment similarly upgraded, making them modern locomotives under the skin. The set is made of two A units and one B unit.
- UP 6936 is an EMD DDA40X "Centennial" diesel-electric locomotive. These were the largest diesel locomotives ever built and were manufactured specifically for Union Pacific.
- UP 5511 is a 2-10-2 steam locomotive. This locomotive is very rarely ever heard of, due to the fact that it was never donated for public display. This locomotive is reportedly in excellent condition, and a restoration probably wouldn't take more than a couple of weeks. The only thing keeping it from being restored is that it would be limited to 40 mph or lower due to its large cylinders and small drivers. As of August 2004, this locomotive is being offered for sale by UP. In addition there are a number of other locomotives kept in storage for possible future restoration. Rio Grande (DRGW) F9B 5763 is one of the units in storage, part of the Trio (A-B-B) of F9s that served on the Rio Grande in various Passenger Duty services (From the Denver Ski Train to the Zephyr Trains) until their retirement in 1996. Sister Units 5771 (F9A) and 5762 (F9B) were donated to the Colorado Railroad Museum. Chicago & Northwestern F7 #401, used in Chicago Commuter Service, also was retained by UP. Among the former tenants was Southern Pacific SD7 1518 (The First Production SD7 (ex. EMD demo 990), transferred to the Illinois Railway Museum after sometime in storage in the UP shops.

Preserved locomotives

In addition to the historic fleet outlined above kept by the Union Pacific itself, a large number of UP locomotives survive elsewhere. Many locomotives were donated to towns along the Union Pacific tracks, for instance, as well as locomotives donated to museums.
- UP 737 - A 4-4-0 in the collection of Steamtown National Historic Site.
- UP 4004, 4005, 4006, 4012, 4014, 4017, 4018, 4023 - Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotives. Eight out of twenty-five still survive. Number 4018, currently residing at the Age of Steam Railroad Museum in Dallas, TX, almost saw a return to operation in 1998 when a film director proposed restoring the locomotive for use in a movie. However, it has been almost a year since anything has been heard of this proposal, and it is considered to have been only a whim. Many consider the Big Boys to have been the largest locomotives ever built, however there are other classes of steam locomotive that are heavier, longer, or more powerful.
- UP 6911 - One of the huge UP's DD40x locomotives, stored in the Commission Federal de Electricidad CFE Museum in Mexico City.
- UP 9000, a Union Pacific 9000 class 4-12-2 giant non-articulated freight locomotive, at the Los Angeles County Fairplex, Pomona, California.

Passenger train service

Until May 1, 1971 (when Amtrak took over long-distance passenger operations in the United States), the Union Pacific at various times operated the following named passenger trains:
- Challenger
- City of Denver (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway)
- City of Las Vegas
- City of Los Angeles (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway)
- City of Portland
- City of Salina
- City of San Francisco (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Southern Pacific Railroad)
- City of St. Louis
- Columbine
- Los Angeles Limited
- Overland Flyer (Overland Limited)
- Portland Rose

Diversity

Union Pacific was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine. It was named "Most Military Friendly Employer in America" for 2005. For the third consecutive year, Union Pacific Railroad has been selected by LATINA Style magazine as one of the LATINA Style 50 best companies for Latina (female hispanic) employees in the United States.

Facts and Figures

According to Union Pacific’s 2003 Annual Report to Investors, at the end of 2003, the Union Pacific Railroad had more than 48,000 employees, 7,861 locomotives, and 87,725 freight cars. Broken down by specific type of car, the Union Pacific owned:
- 29,374 Covered Hoppers
- 18,691 Boxcars
- 13,489 Open-top Hoppers
- 14,955 Gondolas
- 11,296 “Other” types of cars In addition, the railroad also owns 6,950 different pieces of maintenance of way work equipment. The average age from date of manufacture for Union Pacific’s locomotive fleet was 14.3 years at the end of 2003, while the average age from date of manufacture for the freight car fleet at the end of 2003 was 24.5 years.

Company officers

Presidents of the Union Pacific Railroad:
- Sidney Dillon (1874–1884)
- Charles F. Adams (1884–1890)
- Sidney Dillon (1890–1892)
- Jay Gould (several months in 1892)
- E. H. Harriman (1904–1909)
- Carl R. Gray (1920–1937)
- William Jeffers (1937–?)
- John Kenefick (1971–1986)
- Richard K. Davidson (1991–1996)
- Ron Burns (several months in 1996)
- Jerry Davis (1996–1998)