Union Pacific Railroad's one and only high hood SD24 works the north end of Ogden's Riverdale Yard on July 24, 1980. The UP 448 was built as EMD demonstrator 5579 in July 1958 and was sold to the Union Pacific on Aug. 1, 1961. It was retired from the UP roster in Oct. 1980 and sold it to Precision National Corp. on March 27, 1981. Later is was sold to ICG and rebuilt as SD20 2026 by April 1982. It was stored unserviceable by August 1996 and returned to service as Chicago Central & Pacific in February 1997. It was sold to National Railway Equipment in May 1997 and leased as NREX 2026 to IMRL from May 1997 to December 1999. Pacific Harbor Lines out of Long Beach, California leased it as PHL 2026. An interesting and colorful history for a pioneer EMD locomotive that set the stage for the successful SD40 and SD40-2 models. A big thank you to Don Strack for the detailed history of this unique SD24.
