Western Pacific GP35 #3002
Thanks to the efforts of volunteers from the Utah Transit Authority and multiple partner organizations, a rare historic locomotive has been restored and is now on its way to join the collection of exhibits in the Utah State Railroad Museum at Union Station in Ogden.
The effort to preserve a Western Pacific locomotive in Utah began in 2010 when brothers Derrick and Kerry Klarr visited the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California. The Klarr brothers are both UTA FrontRunner employees: Derrick is an operations system supervisor and a long-standing member of the Promontory Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society with a ten-year history of involvement with donation and restoration projects, while Kerry is a vehicle maintenance technician and is also a long-time member of the NRHS Promontory Chapter. After their visit to California, they realized the Western Pacific should be preserved and represented in Utah, the eastern end of the old Western Pacific system.
The Western Pacific’s mainline once ran from Salt Lake City to Oakland, California, and was known as the Feather River Route, due to it running through California’s scenic Feather River Canyon. The Western Pacific eventually merged into the Union Pacific system in 1982.
While researching Western Pacific locomotives, Derrick Klarr located a former Western Pacific GP35 locomotive in McGehee, Arkansas, owned and operated by the Arkansas Midland Railroad as their #2500. The Arkansas Midland was not ready to part with the locomotive at that time, but Klarr stayed in touch with them, and two years ago, the Arkansas Midland retired the locomotive and was willing to donate it to the Utah State Railroad Museum for preservation.
Western Pacific number 3002 is a GP35, four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, in La Grange, Illinois in 1963. Only 1,334 of these GP35 locomotives were ever built. Several GP35s have been rebuilt and are still in service. Currently, there are only five in preservation. The Western Pacific 3002 will be the sixth.
Union Pacific Railroad pitched in to help the effort by bringing the locomotive back to Utah, transporting it across their system through seven states.