Big Blow 23 leads an extra east from North Platte, Nebraska, on October 22, 1966. The 8,500-hp turbine is typical of UP railroading in the mid-sixties, but for a moment take a closer look at the s... (more)

Screaming toward the camera at about 55 mph somewhere east of North Platte, Union Pacific’s westbound Big Blow 22, a member of the final class of 8500-hp Class 23 and 24 turbines, is about the m... (more)

This is why, six years after the end of steam, fans still head for Union Pacific’s Sherman Hill. On September 25, 1965, GTEL 11 leads a GP30-DD35-DD35B-DD35B combination – some 25,750 hp. in a... (more)

Coming down the original Sherman Hill main, Gas Turbine Electric (GTEL) 21 rolls the last miles toward Cheyenne. On the day after Christmas, 1965, UP’s motive power department has already made u... (more)

‘Tis the day after Christmas, 1965, as GTEL Big Bow 9 makes its noisy way past Tower A at Cheyenne’s west end with an extra for Laramie. The C&S overpass offes a fine view of the action, and, ... (more)

Eight miles east of Cheyenne, UP‘s Archer Hill offers the photographer less variety but a more convenient vantage point than sprawling Sherman Hill to the west. On June 2, 1965, the temperature ... (more)

Who else but Union Pacific could routinely muster 15,750-hp on the head end, and do it with only three units? On March 19, 1966, 8,500-hp turbine 19, a 2250-hp GP30, and a 5,000-hp DD35B are past... (more)

Wyoming’s ever-present wind drags Union Pacific 28’s exhaust across the prairie east of Laramie as the 8500-hp turbine single-handedly muscles a drag up the approach to Sherman Hill, March 19,... (more)

You had to stand at trackside to get the full effect: Union Pacific’s final class of turbines, the 8500-hp Class 23 and 24 Big Blows, were BIG, almost 166 feet long overall, 16 feet tall. And lo... (more)

Afternoon storm clouds are gathering as Union Pacific turbine 18 climbs Archer Hill out of Cheyenne with an eastbound extra. On June 22, 1965 the big blow is half way through its life on UP. One o... (more)

Coming and going at Cheyenne’s west end, outbound 8500-hp GE turbine 15 encounters an arriving extra behind GP35 749, two DD35Bs and a DD35A, a 17,500-hp combination. Union Pacific likes to do t... (more)

Laramie was once a busy terminal, where eastbounds picked up helpers for the climb over Sheman Hill and westbounds dropped them off. But four years after the last Union Pacific steam engine tied u... (more)