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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).
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 Pacific.
Its chief competitor is the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (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.
See also
References
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