I don't know where else to share this, so I'll start here at RYPN.

I've been doing research (as close to primary as possible) about the men who were behind the locomotive designs of Union Pacific. Among them were William Riley McKeen, Jr.

http://utahrails.net/up/up-mpm-men.php#mckeen

McKeen started with UP in December 1898, and became head of the motive power department in 1902. He left UP in 1908 to start his McKeen Motor Car Co., leasing space from UP in their Omaha shop complex. He was a protege of E. H. Harriman.

McKeen had a connection that likely got him hired by Union Pacific. His uncle, Samuel McKeen was married to Ellen Burt, the sister of Horace G. Burt, who became UP president in January 1898.

The design of the McKeen car was for a mechanical transmission, and its early success in the 1908-1910 period got the attention of other builders, including GE, and they started competing with their electric transmission designs. World War I and the USRA diverted everyone's attention, and by the time the war was over, McKeen had built his last cars; two in 1916 and two in 1917, including the unique Southern Utah no. 100, a 300 hp, six-wheel truck design that was a failure on the road's grades in Utah.

After the war, the market for rail motor cars improved, with builders by the name of Brill and St. Louis taking the lead, and EMC coming to the market in 1924. McKeen's mechanical designs could not compete.There are stories that Union Pacific continued to support McKeen and his motor cars after Harriman's death in 1909 because Harriman's widow wished it, based on Harriman's own support of McKeen. That changed when Carl Gray became UP president in January 1920. In March 1920 Union Pacific bought out McKeen's interest in his McKeen Motor Car Co.

McKeen moved to Santa Barbara, California, showing up in the 1923 city directory. He died in 1946, still living at the same address, and is buried in Santa Barbara.

Don Strack

Have you tried contacting UPHS?

Bob H

Photo by Will Whittaker, in the January 1979 issue of Pacific News.

I recall being told (or read) that the late Donald Duke of Golden West Books had obtained a couple of file cabinets from Mr. McKeen, Jr. or his estate. Don's obituary stated that his "extensive railroad photography collection, book collection and ephemera have been donated to the Huntington Library in San Marino."

Thanks Brian. McKeen died in 1946, and his widow died in 1987, so it makes sense that Duke would be able to obtain the information, possibly through his connections with the Huntington Library.

Don Strack

For the record, the V&T 22 has been restored to operation since 1979.

Don,

I found the Don Duke and McKeen reference. Don wrote in the acknowledgements of the book RDC: The Budd Rail Diesel Car by Donald Duke and Edmund Keilty (Golden West Books, 1990) the following:

Back to the original post:My understanding is that after the UP bankruptcy in the early 1890s the engineering staff of the railroad was drastically reduced. Not much was done about locomotive design until after Harriman took control. Most of the "Associated Lines" locomotive designs had origins with the Southern Pacific staff.

But, I'm not all that familiar with locomotive improvements of the era.

McKeen seemed to be pushing a number of technologies forward. I am aware of these:

During his tenure the first steel box cars on the UP appeared. The body of one of these was retrieved from Wyoming and is now at IRM. See UP Union Pacific Railroad 100000
Gasoline powered rail cars.
Steel passenger cars. The one that McKeen designed was one based upon the motor car design. This coach had rounded ends and a center entrance. According to a Railway Age write-up the car had each bolster and draftgear as a single steel casting.
The Omaha shops also built a prototype RPO car in the "Harriman" style.

But the actual development of the "Harriman" style passenger cars seems to have started by the SP staff as an advancement of its already standard wooden car designs. Two evolving coach prototypes and its own RPO being constructed in Sacramento prior to the orders from Pullman.

V&T 22 was delivered as a car body to the Museum in the 1990s and returned to operation in 2010 marking the car's 100th anniversary.

http://www.nsrm-friends.org/nsrm44.html

Wesley

The confusion is that V&T Inyo steam locomotive is also number22.

Steven -

No confusion. The 1979 date was the report (and photo) in Pacific News which stated (at THAT time) that the V&T McKeen car body #22 was still in existence in Carson City. It's subsequent restoration is one of the remarkable stories of railroad preservation.

Les

There are a couple of groups trying to restore other McKeen cars, one is trying to bring a
San Diego, Cuyamaca & Eastern Railway McKeen back from Alaska and restore it, the other is trying to restore Southern Utah #100. I believe the first two of the following Facebook pages are the same guy:
https://www.facebook.com/McKeenMotorCar
https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of ... 580885228/
https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of ... 388550102/

You can read about it on this thread:
RYPN: Restoration of the S.D.C.&E.Rwy. McKeen Car "Cuyamaca" #1
(Bear in mind, the author was 16 years old, which is a busy time in one's life, and plans can change.)

16? Ah, that explains a lot, though he doesn't write like a 16yo. I see that all three projects/ Facebook pages are that same guy, and two of the pages haven't seen any activity in almost a year. One thing I know from being 16: girls aren't impressed by your interest in trains, and that starts to matter more and more.

Amen to that. I'm younger than him and people just aren't interested anymore.