OGDEN, Utah – Historic locomotives are steaming up the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah.
On Thursday, Union Pacific hosted its own event for media and the public just south of Ogden’s Union Station. The event involved 4-8-4 No. 844 and newly rebuilt Big Boy 4-8-8-4 No. 4014 along with speeches from UP CEO Lance Fritz, Utah’s governor, and a member of Congress from Utah.
Fritz opened the ceremonies with a radio call to 4014 and Ed Dickens, the railroad’s senior manager for historic operations.
After speeches, invited dignitaries tapped spike mauls to an oversized “golden spike” and began posing with locomotives 4014 and 844 and the UP steam crew, who assumed poses reminiscent of the famed champagne photo from May 10, 1869.
Soon afterward, Dickens and Big Boy Fireman Austin Barker spoke with Trains about 4014’s performance since it departed Cheyenne on May 4.
–We are aware of some audio problems with the recording; we are sorry there’s nothing we can do about it at this time.
Chairman Fritz mentioned his flight to Ogden, and I do not hold it against him. Ogden is about 40 miles from the nearest Amtrak train, although there are excellent connections with Front Line trains. Mr Fritz was in Cheyenne about a week earlier, and i do not know how he traveled there. I also ended my Ogden visit with an airline flight, which was good, but that was much different from my original plan.
I think the grin on Mr Dickens face when he arrived Ogden said how happy he was to bring 4014 in on schedule and operating like it was designed to do. And he is totally justified in his smile. He and his team did what many thought was next to impossible and did it safely and perfectly. Well Done.
I would love to see big boy doing what it was built to do pull five miles of freight cars unaided I grew up with Steam engines In the UK most were war engines 2-8-0s only one remains out of 950 built that was a real shame to lost this many to the scrapman more rebuilds need to be done fire up your steam engine
Thank you for the coverage, Trains Staff!
And, to Union Pacific for the resurrection and restoration of Big Boy 4014. Unfortunately Salt Lake City TV coverage was missing in action locally, with reporters who called the locomotive a “train.” But thanks to fans of history with cameras, this event has been preserved for generations to come.
As I watched Chairman Fritz call forth 4014, I thought “to myself,” I wonder if he flew to Ogden?!
We hope U.P. will continue its plan to tour the Big Boy on its system, perhaps in front of a passenger train!
The Nevada Northern video can be seen but the Trains video is covered by the trains logo .
What a fantastic site seeing those 2 massive loco’s nose to nose. I was kind of hoping they would bring them close enough so they could pass bottles of champaign over the couplers & reenact that scene from 150 years ago. But still awesome!!
Change your screen size, try lower than 100%. You might have enlargement and that applies to the add.
Why does the Trains title cover the video?