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Yellowstone Part 2
UP
Union Pacific's
Yellowstone Special
Part 1
Victor Idaho, 1965

Union Pacific Eastern Idaho branches, 1916.
In July, 1965, my family and my teenage self spent two weeks at the Taylor (dude) Ranch in Victor, Idaho (elev. 6205 ft), just west of Grand Teton National Park. The first thing that I noticed when we drove into the village was the short yellow Union Pacific train sitting behind the town's largest building, the depot.

The train was UP's summer-only Yellowstone Special, and the town sat at the end of Union Pacific's Teton Valley Branch (completed in 1913) which ran down the drop-dead-gorgeous valley of the same name. At the time, the valley was lightly settled and declining in population like many farming areas - surrounding Teton County boasted 2351 souls in 1960, 2351 in 1970. UP served Victor's population of something less than 300 people with a year-round mixed train, which carried passengers in the caboose. Freight cars mainly hauled agricultural products - farm machinery, seed, cattle and the like.

As it turned out, 1965 was to be the last year of operation for the Yellowstone Special, Until 1960, the Special ran up the Yellowstone Branch to West Yellowstone, Montana, with a few cars being set-out at Ashton, Idaho for the run down to Victor. From 1961-65, the Special ran directly to Victor, with a bus connection at Ashton for West Yellowstone.

After the Special quit, the mixed train out of Idaho Falls continued to carry passengers, but only until 1970. UP abandoned the bottom fifteen miles of the branch south of Tetonia in 1981, and the 30 mile balance back to Ashton in 1990. The Yellowstone Branch, which saw its first passenger train in 1908, was abandoned in 1979. In 1993, the Eastern Idaho Railroad took over operations of the various branches (much diminished by the bursting of Teton Dam in 1976) between Ashton and Idaho Falls . The late-arriving local tourism and ski industries have fleshed out Teton Valley's population to nearly 6,ooo people at present.

The Special's operations are well covered by Thornton Waite (see Further Reading, page next), so what you'll find on this page are photos and a crude diagram that document one cool July day (the exact date: I dunno). On the following page, I've amassed a small collection of timetables, maps and etc., followed by a short list of relevant online and printed matter, should you be as fascinated by these trains as I.

The Depot was a beauty - recently painted all-white with a pretty little garden at the south end.






The Layout: Victor sat at the end of the Teton Valley Branch, and equipment was turned on a wye. In steam days, a 50,000 wooden water tank stood just south of the garden. At left is the crude No-I'm-Not-Joe-Cartographer diagram that I drew at the time. Pierre's Playhouse, a slapstick melodrama theater, has become a local institution and is now in its 40th year.

(click iimage for enlarged version)

The Equipment the train that day consisted of: a GP-9; GP-9B; heavyweight baggage; two modernized heavyweight chair cars: modernize heavyweight club-lounge; lightweight sleeper. There was also a PFE reefer and a m/w box in the yard.

(click on image for larger view)

Yellowstone Special, July 1965

PFE company ice service 40' reefer

UP box 903563, rotary snow plow service, silver paint


On to Part 2: reference and further reading.