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A northbound Amtrak Acela tiptoes through the turnouts, exiting high-level Track 20, passing K Tower at Washington Union Station. Doug Riddell Author and retired Amtrak engineer and company photographer Doug Riddell (left) and former Amtrak President Joseph Boardman pose at an inaugural train event in 2009. Doug Riddell A friend of mine asked for advice […]
Today, Promontory Summit is home to the recreated Golden Spike Historic Site, home for two replica 4-4-0s: Union Pacific No. 119, shown, and Central Pacific Jupiter. Jim Wrinn Most school children learned that the Transcontinental Railroad was completed May 10, 1869, at “Promontory Point,” where the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific met, and where […]
Transcontinental Railroad financial troubles After just 18 years of operation, there had been so many irregularities and so much concern over the Union Pacific’s ability to repay its federal loans that in 1887 Congress created the United States Pacific Railroad Commission to investigate the finances and structure of all the major railroads initially described as […]
UP crews built a switchback to reach a tunnel during construction. In many ways, the work done on the transcontinental railroad were feats of ingenuity and engineering. Union Pacific Importance of The Transcontinental Railroad In the 1850s, major railroad projects were viewed as projects for the public good, in much the same way we justify […]
Union Pacific directors pose at the 100th Meridian, 247 miles west of Omaha, Neb. There were still many miles to go to reach Ogden, Utah. Library of Congress collection Many railroads have had their share of drama and intrigue, but it is hard to recall another railroad with the narrative complexity and heroic scale of […]
Click on the image or link to download a PDF of this drawing of the Union Pacific Big Boy In 1941 the Union Pacific RR took delivery of its first 4-8-8-4 single-expansion articulated steam locomotives. Aptly named “Big Boy,” these 7,000 hp, 386-ton locomotives were the heaviest and among the most powerful simple articulateds ever […]
FULL SCREEN Jack Ferry collection For a decade, the cover of the Illinois Central system timetable carried illustrations of the Chicago lakefront. All purported to show the view from the top of Great Central Station, which burned in the Great Fire of 1871. The depot’s arched train shed, however, was never rebuilt. FULL SCREEN Detroit […]
U.S. Presidents have traveled by train almost as long as there have been rails on the continent. Learn more with these two downloadable PDFs looking back at the relationship between Richard Nixon and the railroads and George H.W. Bush’s 1992 campaign train. […]
Passenger car end details were pretty standard and most followed the pattern used on sleeping cars built by the Pullman Co. The car in the photo is Crystal Point, a Pullman 3-compartment, 2-drawing-room, observation lounge assigned to the Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha in 1947. A number of details are visible that appear on most cars […]
This C&O 2-6-6-6 strains mightily to get her 70 loads of eastbound coal moving at Thurmond, W. Va., in 1956. The Balky 1624 had slipped down, then cut off and run ahead to put down sand, and is now trying again. A full third of her tremendous engine weight rests on her lead and trailing […]
With clouds overhead mimicking steam, Big Boy No. 4004 sleeps in October 2013 at Cheyenne’s Holliday Park, just a few blocks from UP rails. Jim Wrinn No. 4004 • Holliday Park, Cheyenne, Wyo. BUILDER’S DATE: September 1941 SERIAL NUMBER: 69575 HISTORY: The fifth Big Boy constructed seems to have had an uneventful career. LIFETIME MILEAGE: […]
Take a trip down memory lane by re-visting some of our favorite covers from the past. […]
