Union Pacific Cabooses
This page was last updated on December 27, 2009.
Special Service Cars
UPP 400 and 401
Two ex CRI&P cabooses were rebuilt as test and laboratory cars, and numbered as UP 400 and 401 in November 1987 (the formal reporting marks are UPP, for Union Pacific Passenger). UPP 400 was the former UP 24531 (ex CRI&P 17113), and UPP 401 was the former UP 24540 (ex CRI&P 17122). Both cars were equipped with rooftop air conditioners and had special test equipment installed inside. The two cars were painted as standard UP cabooses, but without any car class markings.
Within three years, both cars were no longer needed and the test equipment was removed. The cars remained stored and unused at Council Bluffs until they were moved to North Platte, where all remaining equipment was removed. Both cars now have had several seats installed and are used intermittently as shuttle cars to move train and yard crews during periods when winter storms force the closure of local highways.
Both cars remain painted as cabooses, with North Platte Service Unit lettering in place of the more standard Union Pacific lettering.
In November 2009, the former SP 4750, a C-50-9 caboose, appeared at Denver's North Yard, numbered as UPP 430. The car is assigned to "snow bus" service west of Denver to transport crews during snow storms. Previously, SP 4750 was stored at Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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