Challenger (train)

The Challengers were named passenger trains on the Union Pacific Railroad and the Chicago and North Western Railway (which was replaced in 1955 by the Milwaukee Road). The economy service ran between Chicago, Illinois and the West Coast of the United States. The trains had full Pullman service and coach seating and were an attempt to draw Depression-Era riders back to the rails. Food service was advertised as "three meals for under a dollar a day."

During the late 1930s the Challenger fleet was among the highest-patronized of American trains, and the best revenue producers of the UP passenger fleet. Discontinued in 1947, the Challenger name reappeared in 1954 on a streamliner. When Amtrak took over the nation's passenger service in 1971 it ended the Challenger once and for all.

History

In early June 1935 the Union Pacific transferred the heavyweight coaches and tourist sleeping cars of its Los Angeles Limited to a second section, the Challenger. The new train met with such success that the UP ordered 68 cars rebuilt, including 47 coaches, 16 Pullman sleeping cars, and 5 dining cars. The coaches had large reclining chairs and a new color scheme to make the interior more attractive, especially to women passengers. A lounge car was added in April of the following year.

Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad (reporting mark UP) is a Class I line haul freight railroad that operates nearly 8,500 locomotives over 32,000 route-miles in 23 states west of Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and is serviced by more than 47,000 employees.

Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP); both are headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Over the years Union Pacific Corporation has grown by acquiring other railroads, notably the Missouri Pacific, Chicago & North Western, Western Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Southern Pacific (including the Denver & Rio Grande Western).

Union Pacific Corporation's main competitor is the BNSF Railway, the nation's second largest freight railroad, which also primarily services the Continental U.S. west of the Mississippi River. Together, the two railroads have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the U.S.

Challenger

Challenger may refer to:

In transportation

Land vehicles

Sea vessels

Train

A train is a form of rail transport consisting of a series of vehicles that usually runs along a rail track to transport cargo or passengers. Motive power is provided by a separate locomotive or individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Although historically steam propulsion dominated, the most common modern forms are diesel and electric locomotives, the latter supplied by overhead wires or additional rails. Other energy sources include horses, engine or water-driven rope or wire winch, gravity, pneumatics, batteries, and gas turbines. Train tracks usually consist of two running rails, sometimes supplemented by additional rails such as electric conducting rails and rack rails, with a limited number of monorails and maglev guideways in the mix. The word 'train' comes from the Old French trahiner, from the Latin trahere 'pull, draw'.

There are various types of trains that are designed for particular purposes. A train may consist of a combination of one or more locomotives and attached railroad cars, or a self-propelled multiple unit (or occasionally a single or articulated powered coach, called a railcar). The first trains were rope-hauled, gravity powered or pulled by horses. From the early 19th century almost all were powered by steam locomotives. From the 1910s onwards the steam locomotives began to be replaced by less labor-intensive and cleaner (but more complex and expensive) diesel locomotives and electric locomotives, while at about the same time self-propelled multiple unit vehicles of either power system became much more common in passenger service.

Union Pacific 3985

Union Pacific 3985 or UP 3985 is a four-cylinder simple articulated 4-6-6-4 Challenger-type steam locomotive owned by Union Pacific Railroad. It was built in 1943 by the American Locomotive Company of Schenectady, New York. The locomotive is one of only two of the original 105 Union Pacific Challengers in existence, the other being UP 3977 on static display in North Platte, Nebraska. Before it was stored, it was the largest and heaviest operational preserved steam locomotive in the world.

Design

Designed by UP chief mechanical engineer Otto Jabelmann in 1941, UP 3985 was part of the second order of this second version of the Challenger. The design drew on recent experience with the enormous 4-8-8-4 Big Boy locomotives, and resulted in a locomotive in working order weighing some 317 short tons (288 t; 283 long tons) accompanied by a tender weighing 174 short tons (158 t; 155 long tons) when 2/3 loaded. Calculated tractive effort is 97,350 lbf (433.0 kN). The Challenger class was intended to speed up freight operations on the 0.82% grades across Wyoming; the 1.14% Wasatch climb east from Ogden was to be conquered by the Big Boys without helpers. The Challengers and Big Boys arrived on the scene just as traffic was surging in preparation for American participation in World War II.