Saturday, June 17, 2006 - The wait is over! In a ceremony for Union Pacific employees (and retired Rio Grande employees), the blue tarp was removed from UP 1989 (Search Photo Gallery) just west of North Yard today. I was there to cover the uncovering of the unit. I even had the pleasure of meeting with the design team from Bailey Lauerman that designed this (as well as the other five) heritage units.
I think the unit looks fantastic! We all knew that it wasn't going to wear the scheme of any Rio Grande unit in the past, but it is a wonderful combination of mountains and the four-stripe scheme. I (along with many others) was a little surprised by the large volume of gray on the front of the unit. That was the only part of the unit that seemed to drastically depart from any prior scheme the Grande used.
I definitely can't wait to get some pictures of it leading a train, although rumor is right now that it will wind up in captive service on the Joint Line running at night on the MNYPU/MPUNY. Time will tell…
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