Color postcard (13.5 x 9 cm) with a view of Union Pacific railroad car #7 built by McKeen Motor Car Company. The car is green with large round windows over the cow catcher on the front. Along the side are round windows. There is an entry door in the middle of the car. On the side is written Union Pacific Motor Car 7. Behind the motor car are a couple of buildings. One has a large sign Union Pacific Railroad Company and the other says Elsasser Hotel.
Motor Car #7, seen here as built in 1906, shows a body change in self-propelled motor cars with the 2-foot round windows and lowered central door with an inside step on both sides. These 100 horse power railroad gasoline motor cars were designed by William Riley McKeen, Jr. for the Union Pacific Railroad. McKeen was born in Terre Haute, IN, in 1869 and did his undergraduate and graduate work at Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute. In 1902, he accepted an offer to work for the Union Pacific Railroad Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. As the Union Pacific RR, Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery, McKeen was asked to find a way to lower passenger traffic expenses. He developed a novel design that was ahead of its time, lightweight and streamlined. The first railroad motor car was completed in 1905. McKeen resigned from his position at Union Pacific to become President of the McKeen Motor Car Company, a subsidiary of U.P., on August 1, 1908. The earliest models were built in the U.P. shops and were eventually leased to him. Over 150 cars were built between 1905 and 1917 when the shops closed. Union Pacific operated self-propelled cars for over 50 years. Motor Car #7 seen here was rebuilt in 1929 into the T-19. Sources: Morton, J. Sterling, Illustrated History of Nebraska, Lincoln: Jacob North & Company, c1907, p. 955 and McKeen Motor Car website and Carter, Clive. Union Pacific Self-Propelled Cars. Mainline Modeler, June 1998, p.20-27.
