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The Western Pacific Railroad was a railroad in the United States. Its AAR reporting mark was WP. It is now part of Union Pacific Railroad (UP).

1 History

Founded in 1903, the Western Pacific Railroad was built as a portion of the Gould family's efforts to create a transcontinental railroad in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Western Pacific Railroad was acquired in 1983 by Union Pacific Corporation, the owner of its' long-time rival, Union Pacific Railroad (UP).

In 1983, UP was wholly owned by Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) which also owned Overnite Transportation , a major less-than-truckload shipping carrier. Union Pacific divested itself of Overnite Trucking through an IPO in late 2003 but still owns a sizable stake.

Union Pacific's route map covers most of the central and western United States, westward of Chicago and New Orleans. It has achieved this size thanks to purchasing a large number of other railroads in addition to Western Pacific. Notable purchases include the Missouri Pacific, Chicago and Northwestern and Southern PacificThe Southern Pacific Railroad ( AAR reporting mark SP was an American railroad. The railroad was founded in 1865, forming part of the Central Pacific Railroad empire. By 1900, the Southern Pacific Company had grown into a major railroad system that incorp.

Its chief competitor is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe RailwayThe Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company ( AAR reporting mark BNSF , headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and established as a result of a 1995 merger between the parent companies of the Burlington Northern Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and (BNSF), which covers much of the same territory.

Union Pacific has, of this writing, over 33,000 route miles (53,000 km) of track, 47,000 employees, over 7,000 locomotives and over 90,000 freight cars.

2 See also

• Union Pacific Railroad
• Central Pacific RailroadThe Central Pacific Railroad (later to become the Southern Pacific Railroad), was planned by Theodore Judah and financed mostly through the efforts of " The Big Four" who also called themselves, The Associates , who were Sacramento, California businessmen
• Southern Pacific RailroadThe Southern Pacific Railroad ( AAR reporting mark SP was an American railroad. The railroad was founded in 1865, forming part of the Central Pacific Railroad empire. By 1900, the Southern Pacific Company had grown into a major railroad system that incorp
• California ZephyrThe California Zephyr is a train route operated by Amtrak in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States. It runs from Chicago, Illinois in the east to Emeryville, California in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado,