Please read: Effective March 1 2023, we will raise our shipping charges. We have absorbed several postal increases during the past couple years and it is time to make a change. There will not be much change for those ordering on-line as the web calculates shipping charges based on weight, distance, and class of mail service.

 

For mail and phone orders, charges are based on the number of items ordered, not weight. Charges for single-item orders will increase from $6 to $7. Additional items will be charged at $2 per item. For example, if you order a single DVD, the charge will be $7. If you order two, it will be $9. This will also give us the opportunity to send more items via priority mail. (Last year, all multiple 2023 calendar mail orders were sent priority mail, greatly reducing shipping time and mis-handling.)

 

We have received back from dealers six (6) 2023 Rio Grande calendars. They are available only for on-line orders, one to a customer. 

UNION PACIFIC'S BIG EMDs/Withers

Default Title: $1,108.00 TWD

Union Pacific’s Big EMDs – DD35 and DDA40X 

After testing EMD’s GP35-DD35-DD35-GP35 demonstrator set, Union Pacific was so pleased with the design that it almost immediately ordered an additional 25 DD35s and 22 matching GP35s, which were delivered between May and August 1964. These joined the four-unit demon­strator set previously acquired by the carrier.

 

 As with UP’s earlier experiences with cabless booster units, the lack of flexibility of these massive, mainline-only units soon be­came apparent, and a planned follow-on order for 15 units was changed from booster units to 15 units with fully equipped cabs – the DDA35 was born.

The Centennials were the final example of Union Pacific’s search for the ideal loco­motive. While the road pursued a study of its motive power needs in late 1967 and early 1968, UP in March 1968 tried, as a stopgap measure, using EMD’s SD45 model as a high-horsepower, high-speed locomotive, but with limited success. UP returned to the concept of double-engine locomotives and in collaboration between the railroad and EMD, the DDA40X came to life. Within 13 months of an initial March 1968 communication, the railroad and the builder had worked out a definitive design, and the first unit was delivered. The timing of the first unit coincided with the 100th anni­versary of the May 10, 1869, ceremony marking the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah – the DDA40X quickly became known as the Centennial. It was numbered 6900, and 46 more examples arrived over the next 28 months.

List price $39.95, softcover, 128 pages, 130 b&w and 170 color photos, diagrams. SKU: UPEMD. Posted 6-8-12. Revised 7-7-12.