Yuma Union Pacific (#0899)

I wonder how many of the Union Pacific engines I see passing by the Oak Park Green Line station every day wind up out here. There's probably some zone thing that keeps engines in one part of the nation (I really have no idea), but it's an interesting thought to me.

That's the sort of odd question that sparks my curiosity, so did some checking. I couldn't find an answer, but did find that individual locomotives do travel all around the country, but whether they stop somewhere in the middle of the country and get swapped out, I don't know. There is a photo site that tracks UP locomotives around the country. I couldn't find this specific (#2591) locomotive, but randomly choosing another I saw pictures of it in places from Ohio to California: rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=40048.

Heh ... now there's a site I'm going to spend some time on.

For fun, I looked up a a UP engine I posted from Oak Park just before we moved out here. They've got pictures of it in New Jersey, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Paducah, Nevada, North Platte, and a bunch of other places. The closest to this spot is Martinez, California (in the Bay Area), but this answers my question. These engines are far less confined to specific regions than I'd have guessed.

rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=19106

I figured that you might find it interesting, since you're the one who pointed out to me the site for tracking ships. One thing to know is that engines get sold, repainted, and renumbered, so there may be even more history than is evident.