ABOVE: Are we in Nebraska? The 8000-foot mountains in the background suggest other- wise. Centennial 6936 is rolling north on the main line at Tehachapi Loop as UP-owned former Chicago & North Western 8698 holds the siding at Walong on April 15, 1999. LEFT: UP 6936 leads an Engineering Depart- ment passenger special eastbound through Chatsworth Rocks in California’s Santa Susana Pass on July 17, 1999.
would be absent entirely from a priori- ty train and replaced by five equivalent units. Standard model SD40 locomo- tives also participated in these consists but to a far lesser extent. However, the Centennial Sandwich was quite often the motive power consist of choice. The
eight-axle Centennials com-
manded the rails of the West for more than a decade. Towards the end of the 1970s, a prolonged national economic downturn coupled with rising fuel costs took its toll on railroad traffic, result- ing in the Centennials and numerous other locomotive model types being placed into storage. At one point, the railroad tried to negotiate a trade-in deal with EMD for all of the stored units in 1982, but could not reach an agreement. Some Centennials became donor units, having their
relatively
low-mileage diesels transplanted into older SD40s in 1983. As the engine re- placement program progressed, it was discovered the big DD40s were in bet- ter shape than the SD’s.
By 1984 the nation’s business activi- ty was booming once again and the rail- roads found themselves short of motive power. Orders had been planned and placed for additional new locomotives but during the interim, the Centenni- als and other older locomotive model types that had been in storage were re- activated temporarily to bridge the gap. In 1984 about half of the Centen- nial fleet did return to service, but their tour of duty was to be a little more than one year before being permanently re- tired with the rest of the fleet. Once a source of company pride, the aging units began to show the effects of
being stored outside and road failures became more common. Two of the units, the 6903 and the 6921, saw much shorter careers on account of being in- volved in wrecks in 1974 and 1978, and being scrapped not long afterwards. By 1986, all of the Centennials had been withdrawn from service, having racked up more than 2.2 million miles in their brief service career.
Eleven of the locomotives were do- nated by UP for public display in vari- ous parks and museums. Centennial 6936 was the only unit from the fleet of giants to survive as part of the Her- itage Fleet based in Cheyenne, Wyo. The
unit has been subsequently
restored and maintained in good work- ing order to pilot some of the company’s special trains, as it continues to do to this day. Even the one time massive fleet of SD40-2s has dwindled substan- tially as Union Pacific favors newer, more efficient
diesels. Yet 6936 re-
mains the pride of the fleet, reminding us of a time when “bigger was better” and the railroads truly offered “Dependable Transportation.”
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