May 7, 2016

2528 UNITED STATES - A 4-4-0 locomotive of Union Pacific Railroad


The Union Pacific Railroad network is the largest in the United States and also one of the world's largest transportation companies. The company extended the American railway system to the Pacific Coast; being incorporated by an act of the U.S. Congress on July 1, 1862. The original rail line was built westward 1,619 km from Omaha, Nebraska, to meet the Central Pacific Railroad line, which was being built eastward from Sacramento, California. The two railroads were joined at Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. Therefore was the first transcontinental railroad.

As many other railroads that operated in North America in the 19th century, UP owned and operated locomotives type 4-4-0, most commonly known as the American type, due to the large number of the type that were produced and used in the United States. The first 4-4-0 locomotive was designed by Henry R. Campbell in 1836. The design and subsequent improvements of the 4-4-0 configuration proved so successful that, by 1872, 60% of Baldwin's locomotive construction was of this type and it is estimated that 85% of all locomotives in operation in the US were 4-4-0s.

About the stamp, which commemorates 50 years of the Fehmarn Sound Bridge, I wrote here.

References
Union Pacific Railroad - Wikipedia
4-4-0 - Wikipedia

Sender: Yannick Henninger (direct swap)
Sent from Reute (Baden-Württemberg / Germany), on 10.02.2014

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