▚ The Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific was chartered by Congress in 1862 to build the eastern half of the first transcontinental railroad, racing west from Omaha to meet the Central Pacific at Promontory, Utah in 1869. It has been a titan of American railroading ever since.
▚ Big Boys and streamliners
UP ran the largest steam locomotives ever built — the 4-8-8-4 Big Boys — over Sherman Hill, and pioneered the streamliner with the M-10000 and the City fleet. Armour yellow and gray became one of the most recognizable liveries in the world.
▚ The great consolidator
In the modern era UP became the buyer: Missouri Pacific and Western Pacific (1982), Missouri-Kansas-Texas (1988), Chicago & North Western (1995), and Southern Pacific (1996). Today it is the largest railroad in the United States by most measures.
▚ On this layout
Union Pacific appears as an AC4400CW, a Dash 9, and a distinctive SD40-2 "snoot nose" — the yellow giant that ended up owning so many of the fallen flags on this roster.