WAB power with UP logos?

[The tram man]

Earlier today i found this picture on Wikipedia. I had no idea that the Wabash pulled the City of St Louis in the first place, but what really caught my eye was the engines. Two EMD E7A's wearing Wabash livery, but also the UP herald on the nose and City of St Louis titles on the sides. Is there any truth to this?

The picture is, according to Wikipedia, dated around 1950.

[The tram man]

Anyone? Doesn't anyone have any information on this?

[ExCon90]

Just spotted this thread. It looks to me like an artificially colored photo or a painting; UP trains were solid Armour yellow lined out in red, top and bottom, with no separate coloring on the window band. The Wabash did handle the City of St. Louis between St. Louis and Kansas City, but I never saw or heard of a UP herald on Wabash power, let alone lettering for the City of St. Louis. I don't have a 1950 schedule, but I think the eastbound and westbound trains may even have met while on the Wabash (I don't think there would have been time for a same-day turnaround in St. Louis), and it's highly unlikely that two diesel sets would have been lettered for one train when locomotive utilization would have required them to run off a lot more mileage than once a day one-way between St. Louis and Kansas City.

[ExCon90]

I checked a 1955 Official Guide last night; the eastbound arrived in St. Louis a little after noon, and the westbound left at 4.15 pm, so there was time to service the locomotives, and given the standard of timekeeping typical of that period they might also have serviced the entire train and sent it back west the same day, day after day. So they might have painted one set of diesels with the train name and kept it in assignment, but I've never seen a photo of that.

[The tram man]

I do know that the cars in the... Image are not painted correctly, but that's pretty much all i knew beforehand. Prior to finding this picture i can't even recall knowing anything about the Wabash pulling the CoStL.

But, anyway, back on topic. You're saying that, even though neither you or me have seen any real proof of it, there might have been actual Wabash units wearing the City of St Louis titles?* But what are your thoughts on the supposed UP heralds?

*I have found one picture of an E7A wearing City of Kansas City titles, seen here, but i don't know if it's an authentic photo or if it's been edited, apart from the Wabash flag in the corner. Not sure if it can be used as proof or not.

[ExCon90]

All I can say is that the fact that I haven't seen a photo doesn't prove that it never happened. It does appear that it would have been feasible on the City of St. Louis, since one set of diesels could have made the daily round trip, with several hours in St. Louis and overnighting in Kansas City. I think the City of Kansas City had the opposite side of the schedule, leaving St. Louis in the morning and Kansas City around 4 or 5 pm, overnighting in St. Louis. On the other hand, airbrushing was the photoshop of its day, and the KC photo could have been an advertising promo. As to the UP herald, they could have done that also; when the City of San Francisco was introduced, the locomotive had heralds of the C&NW, UP, and SP arranged vertically on the front of the locomotive, which ran through. What I find most noteworthy is the photo on this topic in the UP forum, showing Wabash power on the UP in Colorado. I would think that an unusual move, since if the power came off at Kansas City in the morning it would lie around all day waiting for that night's eastbound departure, and necessitating two sets appropriately lettered. On the other hand, if it continued west I don't know where the next engine terminal was on the UP west of Cheyenne, and that would be a long time for Wabash power to be off line, requiring even more sets to be lettered (however, there are the two photos). The 1950's were a little early for the widespread dispersal of diesel power around the country that is common today.