Union Pacific Operations in Oklahoma City

Hello all!

My apologies for not posting a blog in some time.  Army life has been as demanding as ever, but I hope to become a little more consistent in posting here.

Today I thought I'd share some photos and notes on Union Pacific switching operations in Oklahoma City on the aptly named Oklahoma City Subdivision.

Switching work in Oklahoma City on the UP is handled by a daily switch job that leaves the OKC yard (formerly the Rock Island Harter Yard) just east of downtown usually around 0800.  Most of the industries are west of downtown, and include several lumber yards, a Purina plant, a Coca-Cola bottling plant, a recycling facility, and several warehouses.  The train is usually powered by a single geep and is often quite short; a perfect modeling project!

Here UP 1500, a former Southern Pacific unit now sporting a patch job, is tied down in the yard.

On another day, 1500 leads a short switch job across Reno Ave through the Bricktown area.  In tow were several empty boxcars for the recycling facility and a couple loads of lumber on center-beam flat cars.  The boxcars for the recycling facility tend to be Railbox, CSX, or Norfolk Southern.

Leased locomotives are also commonly assigned as the Oklahoma City switcher.  Here GMTX 2168, a GP38-2, is pulling loaded boxcars from Waste Management.

Nearby, on the main at the Ann Arbor grade crossing, the crew shoves a load to the Cedar Creek lumber yard. 

The locomotives pulls boxcars back up onto the main from the spur that serves the Waste Management plant, a food warehouse, and several other warehouses.  There is also a short runaround track on the spur that ends at Reno Ave.

Here we see the switcher preparing to leave the yard on another day, this time with corn syrup tank cars for the Coca-Cola Bottling Plant in tow.

This spur is also former Rock Island track and makes a fishhook just east of the fairgrounds and heads back towards downtown.  The portion that goes back east is actually the former Rock Island mainline through town, before a re-alignment back in the 1920's.  It once served a dense industrial district, but times have changed, and the dilapidated old tracks serve only two businesses currently: a lumber yard and the Purina plant.  I've never managed to actually catch a train creeping down these tracks, but judging by what I've been told and the volume of cars at Purina, it must happen at least a couple times a week.

On this particular day I visited, the crew was switching the yard rather than running a switch job west.  They used the SD70s from the previous night's Enid-Oklahoma City Local rather than the GP38-2 to do the switching.  They "kicked" the cars into two or three different tracks in the yard as they sorted them out.

The switcher and the power from the Enid-Oklahoma City Local tied down, looking west back towards downtown.

I hope you've enjoyed this update.  I will try to add another one soon, including an update on my new model railroad!