UP & the Olympics

Athletics and sports have been ingrained in the fabric of Union Pacific Railroad since the beginning in the 19th century. Employee athletic clubs and corporate sponsored sporting events occurred throughout UP’s history to bring together the railroad community. This photograph shows the North Platte, Nebraska baseball team with their adorable, blurry, mascot.

In preparation for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, California, Union Pacific examined its previous relationships with the games hosted in the United States of America. This includes exploring the artifacts/photographs/information available in the UP Historical Collection. The first Olympic games held within the United States were the 1904 summer games hosted by St. Louis. They were followed in 1932 by the winter games hosted by Lake Placid, New York, and the summer games in Los Angeles, California. This pamphlet from the 1932 Summer Games in LA was produced by UP for travelers to the games and can be seen in full in our digital archive.1932 was a big year for the U.S. for hosting two Olympic Games within the same year, and during the Great Depression. Not as many countries were able to compete. It was the first time that the Olympic Village was used to house the competitors. Additionally, the summer games in Los Angeles, was the first time the winners in their respective events, stood on the three-tiered podium, and their home country flags were raised behind them while they received their awards.

While Union Pacific will not be transporting passengers aiming to visit Los Angeles in 2028, supplies and freight for the events, services and facilities continue to travel on UP lines. The 1996 Summer Games were hosted by Atlanta, Georgia, and the last games held within the U.S. were the 2002 Winter Games hosted by Salt Lake City, Utah. For the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 and in Salt Lake City in 2002, Union Pacific partnered with various other organizations to create a special train, commemorating the moment in United States and Olympic history. The “Torch Relay” became the global stage for Union Pacific, tasked with contributing to the transportation of the symbolic Olympic flame from its home in Greece to the sites of the games.

100 years after the first Modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896, Union Pacific Railroad began preparations for their inclusion in the 1996 Atlantic Centennial Olympic games torch relay in 1995. They worked alongside the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games or ACOG as well as other corporate sponsors like Coca – Cola to create a lasting memory in the minds of American citizens. The Olympic flame landed in Los Angeles, California after being flown across the Pacific Ocean from Greece, travelling to Atlanta partly on the railroad. While this wasn’t the first time the flame has been on a train, Union Pacific broke through by creating a designated train for the flame, even manufacturing the specialized “Cauldron Car” to hold the flame during its journey. This train transported the flame over select and specific sections of the relay, trading off with runners, bikers or horse riders in cities across the country to provide a relay honoring the history of America and its founding. To create the “Cauldron Car” for Union Pacific, the Northern Railcar Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin outfitted a UP flat car with the necessary weights and decorations worthy of the Olympic Games and gave it the number UPP 1996.

The flame for the 1996 Olympics lit on March 30 in Olympia, Greece, where it burned for 30 days nonstop. The flame landed in Los Angeles on April 27, 1996, where it was transported to the Memorial Coliseum for a ceremony, and the beginning of the relay in the host country. Celebrities, athletes and runners relayed the torch to Yuma, Arizona where it was placed on the Union Pacific Olympic Train to start the rail portion of the relay. In between segments of the relay where the flame was transported via non-rail methods, the UP “Olympic Train” deadheaded (or traveled without passengers or profit generating cargo) to the location of the next portion of the relay that utilized the railroad. To keep the flame lit while moving at speeds averaging at 45 mph, Georgia Tech University professor, Dr. Sam Shelton, engineered a vertical air curtain aperture, shooting air upward at 100 mph, protecting the flame from most wind gusts. Additionally, the “Olympic Train” made “whistle stops” in several cities across the Western U.S. Altogether, this relay accumulated about 15,000 miles, and as many as 10,000 torchbearers of the relay, including lay community members, called “Community Heroes.”

The rest of the relay was completed via sailboat, bicycle, seaplane, streetcar, biplane, cable car, and steamboat. Famously, the segment of the relay between Julesburg, Colorado and St. Joseph, Missouri was completed by horseback, in true American West historical “Pony Express” fashion. This is shown in the map to the right.

Union Pacific collaborated with eight other major railroads to accomplish this feat, including: Arizona & California Railroad Co.; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company; Burlington Northern Railroad; CP Rail System/Soo Line; Illinois Central Railroad; Kansas City Southern Lines; Southern Pacific Lines; and Washington Central Railroad Company, Inc.

The “Olympic Train,” however, was powered by exclusively UP diesel locomotives, numbered UP 1896 and UP 1996 (after the first modern Olympic games in Athens in 1896 and the Centennial games in Atlanta). In addition to the repainted and renumbered diesel locomotives at the front, and the reconstructed “Cauldron Car” at the back, there were 18 other passenger cars, reminiscent of the Golden Era of Passenger Travel on the Railroad. These passenger cars, maintained and used by Union Pacific as a part of the “heritage fleet,” made up a thrilling consist for the “Olympic Torch Relay Train.”

 

The two locomotives have since been repainted and are still in service as UP 1684 and UP 1838. However, the Summer Olympics will return to the United States in 2028, hosted by the city of Los Angeles, California.

Check out UP & the Olympics part 2 diving into the 2002 Winter Olympic Games Torch Relay Train to Salt Lake City, Utah!