With all the hype this week surrounding the 150th Anniversary of the driving of the golden spike at Promontory in 1869 I’d thought I’d give you a flashback to the 125th in 1994. I was fortunate to be there then -- unfortunately now I'm currently much too busy to be going to the 150th.
If I recall it was hyped similarly, although definitely not via the internet since most of us didn't have access to the web until later in 1994 when Compuserve, AOL and Prodigy started supporting it widely. In its place railroad and railfan magazines were foaming for months prior. Having been swept up in the fever, and after a very successful train-themed vacation the summer before (involving a rail event closer to home), my very-tolerant wife and I set up our reservations to be in the Promontory area the week of the 125th anniversary. We’d be taking along out our little guy on his first big vacation. With another baby on the way we figured that we needed to shoe-horn in something special before things got too hectic.
Before we get into what happened in 1994 consider these videos from this week's (2019) current events at Ogden Union Station, for a modern reality check. There couldn't possibly be a bigger difference! :
Ogden UT Heritage Festival 150th (thanks to Road Trippin Nomad)
and
2019 Union Pacific Big Boy 4014 Transcontinental Railroad Celebration in Ogden (thanks to Union Pacific)
Back to 1994 ...
Warning: All 'facts' listed below are subject to correction, given my advancing years since the event. Feel free to highlight and correct any contentious points.
First Stop: Ogden Union Station, the day before the ceremony
Location: 2501 Wall Ave, Ogden, UT 84401; about 25 or 30 miles SE of Promontory
Ogden Union Station – Ground zero for before-the-ceremony events. The station featured a large model train layout and rail-related displays in its concourse, a luncheon in its auditorium, also inside, a classic car show on the plaza outside in front, and the main event for us: motive power and equipment displays under the station’s museum pavilion (a common occurrence) and back on the station’s tracks (a very uncommon one). We found the station to be very well kept, inside and out. However something is odd, I don’t recall why the stars and stripes is flying at half-mast on the center pole in front of the station, do you?
Union Pacific Challenger No. 3985, on Display – The Challenger was our star of the show, and one of the main reasons for our visit. We would ride behind her in a few short days as she was at that time in the middle of pulling a series of excursion segments from Cheyenne westward.
A Look Inside the Cab – How do you operate something this big? Interestingly, just the same way you’d operate an 0-4-0. Several railfans viewing the cab mentioned that nothing looked overly special just because it was big. Unlike today’s Big Boy the Challenger in 1994 had already been broken in and well used after its restoration. Hence it wasn’t such a huge deal, but a good bit of fun to track down and see anyway.
Representing the Central Pacific, via successor SP – Southern Pacific E9 No. 6051 was on display as well, although unlike the Challenger with its excursions 6051 was intended to be quite stationary throughout all of the events. If I recall this was before the UP-SP merger put both roads together. Today (2019) it’s all UP so there’s some question if any of UP’s predecessor equipment will appear in its native appearance this week.
At the Controls – Here the little guy is in his glory ‘running’ the locomotive, although as you can probably see he’s not yet tall enough to see out the windshield. (It's a good thing that he doesn't know how to start this thing up because, of all kids, he would do it.)
Children were welcomed in and around all the displays. Not only did they learn something important while visiting each piece, they came out at the end of the day all tuckered out – he slept like a log that night which almost never happened when we were on vacation in those days.
Union Station’s Pavilion (Utah State Railroad Museum) – At that time this was a fine place to see UP equipment on display, and as far as I can tell it still is to this day. Not just on special occasions but most every day. We got a good look at Centennial (DDA40X) No. 6916, and Turbine No. 26 under the Pavilion that day. When we were there the mountains still had picturesque snow-capped peaks, even though it was early May and relatively warm.
Amtrak Displays – Amtrak also had equipment, motive power, and rolling stock on display, including F40PH No. 251 and several cars. True to form, and unlike the UP and SP stuff that day, none of Amtrak’s was particularly clean outside, although everything was quite neat on the inside. This Superliner II Sleeper 32090 ‘Michigan’ was an unexpected find for us, being from that state. Our walking tour through it that day ended up calming down many fears we had – we were already planning a future trip aboard the Southwest Chief, and weren’t sure how we’d handle a multi-day and night trip with small kids on board the train. It now looked very manageable. In all of our travels on Amtrak over the years since we’ve never run into ‘Michigan’ again, or any other state-named sleeper except ‘Maryland’.
Celebration Luncheon – I don’t remember exactly which organization sponsored this luncheon but it was quite well received. One of the station’s long-unused spaces had at some point been converted into an auditorium, available for use by local groups for many different purposes. This luncheon featured good food, and entertainment by the choral group you can see standing up near the stage.
Classic Car Show – Although they’re quite common today I don’t remember classic car shows being so common back then. This one seemed to be run by a local group of enthusiasts. Their vehicles were arrayed around the plaza in front of the station. The fountain in the foreground was not yet activated for the summer season. I was very surprised, and quite pleased, that somebody had taken such good care of the station and grounds, and invested in its future. In most communities at that time, at least the ones we had visited, stations were usually standing derelict, or facing a significant level of neglect.
This Guy has the Right Idea (What? Not O Scale?) – In the middle of the classic car show we found this rare gem. The owner as you can see didn’t want to miss the train displays and the car show at the station, but he didn’t want to leave his trains home either. Have you seen a better way to satisfy two passions at once?
N Gauge, Perfect Fit – Despite the F-100 (or maybe it was older, perhaps an F-1?) only having a six foot box he packed a lot in. Perfect match, and perfect for the occasion.
After a busy day we left the station ready for the Golden Spike Ceremony, for which would we would be up bright and early the next day.
By the way I have video on some of this as well, but I've got to dig it out. For now stills will have to do.
Mike
