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Locomotive profile: U50

By Angela Cotey | March 16, 2020

| Last updated on November 3, 2020


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Union Pacific U50 No. 45 at Kearney, Nebraska, in September 1970.
Union Pacific U50 No. 45 at Kearney, Nebraska, in September 1970.
Francis Wiener, T. Hoffman Collection
U50

•YEARS BUILT: 1963-1965, 1969-1971

•MANUFACTURER: General Electric

•OPERATED ON: Union Pacific, Southern Pacific

•NAMES: U50 and U50C; nicknames, Twin Diesels, Double Diesels, Whirlybirds, Choppers, Stalkcutters, Rock Crushers

•QUANTITY: 66

•HORSEPOWER: 5,000

•KNOWN FOR: Large cab with curved nose; long and loud

•STATUS: All were scrapped

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