Why a $600 million herd of iron horses has been put out to pasture in Salt Lake City

Apr 28, 2020 at 01:46 PM CST - 1
SALT LAKE CITY — If a railroad locomotive is an iron horse, then a vast herd of them has been put out to pasture in Salt Lake City. They’re lined up, nose to tail, waiting to go nowhere — at least for now. By some estimates as many as 200 railroad engines — each one costing about $3 million — have been sidelined over the last year or so in a Union Pacific rail yard just north of downtown Salt Lake City. And it has nothing at all to do with the new coronavirus. A company spokeswoman for Union Pacific refused to answer detailed questions about the unusual sight, but Kristen South wrote in an email to the Deseret News that the engines are “being stored” due to a companywide efficiency program that kicked in during 2019.

Apr 28, 2020 at 01:46 PM CST

- 1

SALT LAKE CITY — If a railroad locomotive is an iron horse, then a vast herd of them has been put out to pasture in Salt Lake City. They’re lined up, nose to tail, waiting to go nowhere — at least for now. By some estimates as many as 200 railroad engines — each one costing about $3 million — have been sidelined over the last year or so in a Union Pacific rail yard just north of downtown Salt Lake City. And it has nothing at all to do with the new coronavirus. A company spokeswoman for Union Pacific refused to answer detailed questions about the unusual sight, but Kristen South wrote in an email to the Deseret News that the engines are “being stored” due to a companywide efficiency program that kicked in during 2019.