UP Turbines, by Pentrex Videos, great!

Indeed, this is a great primer for those wanting to learn about UP's finest!  Of course you will also want to get Thomas Lee's Turbines West book to go with this.  Two other great pieces on this subject are the old 8500 Turbines of the Wahsatch; now back out on DVD, and A.J. Wolff's Union Pacific Turbine Era book.  Armed with all this stuff, you begin to get a pretty complete picture of the thirty year story of these bad boys.  Way too bad that the fuel situation for these most impressive machines went south in the mid '60s ...or they might have lasted a while longer.

At the very end, in late '69, the last survivors were loaded out on Diesel fuel.

it is a very informative video.

I noticed there was quite a lot of left-hand running, was that a standard practice for the Union Pacific, or am I just seeing passing situations? Being an eastern modeler I do not know much about western roads.

The UP double track main line from Council Bluffs to Ogden is all CTC, bi-directional signaling plus cab signals. Thus, many times you can see two or more trains going the same direction on BOTH TRACKS, i.e. one train running around another. Still happens today.

It's my understanding that east out of Ogden and Riverside, you get a slightly easier grade when running lefthand main. 

Here's a preview of Turbines of the Wasatch....not very long but it shows some of the scenes contained in the program. I have the DVD and it's quite good.

I believe this was originally a Video Rails program.

Bob

Too bad the Turbines were too early to see the AC drives we have today... as the electrical systems were the initial weak link in the Turbine chain.  Just too much power for the late '50s technology.  Had AC been around, GE could have built a machine with close to 400K TE, and run the frame size 5 turbine up to it's true potential of 10,700 HP.   As it was, there were attempts to upgrade the big Turbines past their 8500HP rating. That rating was, BTW, at 1 mile of altitude and 90 degrees F.  Turbine power was higher at lower altitude/ temps. In the early '60s Uncle Pete began modifying both electrical excitation and fuel delivery to produce the effect of 10K gross HP, and 8500HP at the knuckle.  All but five were so dealt, and some were knocked back to their original settings after causing problems. No. 18 still has her turbine inside, and if you want to spend some really outrageous restoration money, she could be running again!