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1.) Samuel S. Montague, Central Pacific chief engineer 2.) Grenville M. Dodge, Union Pacific chief engineer 3.) James H. Strobridge, CP construction superintendent 4.) Unknown UP officials 5.) CP Jupiter engineer George Booth 6.) Beverages, possibly champagne 7.) UP No. 119 engineer Sam Bradford 8.) Funnel or “Yankee” stack for a wood burning locomotive 9.) Coal oil or […]
Union Pacific Railroad as of 2019 The original Transcontinental Railroad route was the combined efforts of two railroads: the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific. By 2019, 150 years after joining their rails at Promontory Summit, Utah, only the Union Pacific remains. Union Pacific operates along much of the original Transcontinental Railroad route between Sacramento, […]
The Transcontinental Railroad’s replacement 1,000-mile tree in Utah. Jim Wrinn Of all of the locations that Union Pacific marked either formally or informally in the 1860s as it worked westward toward Promontory, one of the most interesting is the 1,000-mile tree. Nestled next to the tracks in Weber Canyon between Evanston, Wyo., and Ogden, Utah, […]
A view of the Union Pacific main line from Piedmont Road near the Altamont and Alpine tunnels along the Transcontinental Railroad route. The location is where, legend has it, that Union Pacific workers delayed Thomas Durant’s train on his way to the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah. Jim Wrinn A tried and true […]
The Ames Brothers monument along the former Union Pacific and Transcontinental Railroad right-of-way in Wyoming. The monument is on the Sherman Hill grade. Richard Koenig OLD SHERMAN, Wyo. — One of my favorite places on the first Transcontinental Railroad is Sherman Hill. It was the first big obstacle in Union Pacific’s way when the railroad […]
INDIANAPOLIS — Noted Indiana railroad historian and university professor Dr. Francis Parker, 80, died March 27 in Muncie, Ind. He authored or co-authored two books on Indiana railroads: “Railroads of Indiana” (with Richard Simons) and “Indiana Railroad Depots: A Threatened Heritage.” He came to Muncie in 1976 as one of four founding professors for Ball […]
Missouri-Kansas-Texas drovers’ caboose No. 350 shows off the car’s extra length. The cars could accommodate extra riders overseeing livestock shipments. Harold Schupp Q Where, in the train’s consist, were drovers’ cabooses placed? Were they at the rear with the regular caboose, or somewhere in the train’s consist near the stock cars? Were they used only […]
“Trestle on Central Pacific Railroad,” by Carleton E. Watkins, from the J. Paul Getty Museum, is part of the “After Promontory” exhibition. Courtesy Center for Railroad Photography & Artt The Center for Railroad Photography & Art’s traveling exhibition, “After Promontory: 150 Years of Transcontinentail Railroading,” will open at two sites this weekend. Today, March 29, […]
FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN Drake Hokanson FULL SCREEN The railroad roundhouse is even more an anachronism than the heavy-timber barn, and perhaps even more emblematic of nostalgic times in U.S. history. The Evanston, Wyo., roundhouse stabled Union […]
Replica steam locomotive Union Pacific 4-4-0 No. 119 stands outside its modern engine shed in rural Utah in 2018. TRAINS: Jim Wrinn Come May 10, 2019, two locomotives will be in the spotlight for some 12,000 spectators at the 150th celebration of the first Transcontinental Railroad completion: Replicas of Central Pacific Jupiter and Union Pacific […]
Canadian Pacific 4-4-0 136 waits to enter the one-stall engine house at Norton, N.B., after bringing a mixed train in from Chipman in November 1953. In the background is one of the light bridges on the Chipman line that required the use of three little 4-4-0s. Philip R. Hastings photo […]
Lonely. Isolated. Desolate. Remote. The list of words to describe how this place — one of the (if not the) most sacred sites in American railroad history — feels is nowhere long enough. To come here into the high desert is to be on a pilgrimage for a glimpse into the unending sagebrush, rocks, and […]
