where can i find a list of union pacific train id's, including their routes and schedules?

Answer 1

Nick,

Due to heightened security, public freight timetable information is no longer available. Good luck trying to find such information, it's extremely difficult to come by unless you have inside sources.

Answer 2

Employees have been forbidden to give out information on trains for as long as I have been with them, which pre-dates 9/11 by at least 30 years in 1971, when I began my career.

But for a little insight:

"Regular" trains, which are those that operate on a timetable schedule, went the way of the dinosaurs in the late '70s. Only those operated by Amtrak remain. But, some trains, inter-modal especially, are operated at close to the same time each day from the originating terminal. Everything else is operated when crews or power is available, or when need arises.

Identification is done in two ways.

The train ID, on the western lines (I assume elsewhere on the UP system as well), indicates starting terminal and final terminal. By way of example, a train operating from Eugene, Oregon, to West Colton, California, would be identified as an 'EUWC'.

Then another letter is added to identify the type of train, such as "M" for manifest or "T" for inter-modal. So, our manifest train is now the 'EUWCM'.

Numbers are then tacked on to indicate the order and date of each train's origin. So, our train running today would carry the ID of the "01 EUWCM 07'. If there was a second one ran, then it would be the '02 EUWCM 07', and so on.

For communication purposes, trains are identified by the initials and number of the lead locomotive of the road engine, such as, 'UP 3711'. The initials are used so that if there is a foreign road locomotive being used with the same number, the trains won't be mistaken for one another.

Answer 3

Well, have you thought about leaving ten minutes earlier? You might gripe to your alderman, city council or mayor. Maybe they could ask that it be done at a different time as a matter of public relations, but don't count on it. UP will do what they need to do when they need to do it. Added 11/1 2202Edt. - "it happens at different times. No matter if i go 10 minutes early, they always congest trafiic". Well, the railroad was probably there before your town was even thought of, and as posted below, the 10 minute rule. You'll find a lot of things in life that you just have to deal with, and this appears to be one of them. I hate following a school bus that stops at every other driveway and "congest"s traffic, but I've just got to DEAL WITH IT.

Answer 4

Very difficult to do these days... not merely for the security issues, but due to the fact that frieghts are simply no longer on a schedule !!

My brother's power plant takes in a LARGE coal unit-train each week in the Stockton, California... and they NEVER know when it will actually arrive !!

Answer 5

even if you worked for them there is probably no legitemate reason for you to know.