UP 737 began its career as part of one of the largest locomotive orders on record up to that date, for use on Union Pacific passenger and freight trains.

painted on the small panel below the windows on each side of the cab, standing for the name of a Union Pacific subsidiary in Nebraska, the Omaha and Republican Valley Railway.

In August 1904 (different sources disagree on the date), the Union Pacific Railroad sold Locomotive No.

In 1913, in a renumbering and reorganization of motive power, the Southern Pacific Company gave the locomotive its final number: No.

By the end of 1904, subsequent to Congress passing a safety act that mandated the change, the Southern Pacific converted the locomotive's link and pin coupling equipment to automatic "knuckle" couplers, possibly of the Janney type.

At unknown dates, a number of other changes followed as the locomotive experienced further modernizations quite common on railroads across the country during that time.

A steel pipe or "boiler tube" pilot replaced the original wooden type of cowcatcher.

To move the locomotive to Vermont on a flat car, it was necessary to cut off the roof of the steel cab to meet height clearance requirements, but Steamtown retained the cab roof, and moved it to Bellows Falls, Vermont.

The newly created Park is located in the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad yards in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

In 1989, the Steamtown Foundation donated the remaining railroad collection, including UP 737, to the National Park Service.

The NSRM loaned the 737 to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, who later acquired full ownership of the engine.

In 2004, the WPRRM traded the UP 737 to the Double-T Agricultural Museum in Stevinson, CA, where presently remains on static display.