CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE THE MAP California to Nevada Nevada to Utah Utah to Wyoming Wyoming to Nebraska Nebraska to Iowa The first Transcontinental Railroad was a monumental undertaking by the time workers finished it in 1869. Today, tourists and enterprising photographers can visit much of what American ancestors left behind 150 years […]
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, […]
Map of Sherman Hill on Union Pacific: one of the Transcontinental Railroad’s challenging obstacles Sherman Hill is one of the imposing physical challenges from the building of the first Transcontinental Railroad that remains a challenge today. In this map, see what Sherman Hill is like from an operations point-of-view for Union Pacific. Only from Trains! […]
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 […]
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 […]
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Back in 1869, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroad worked tirelessly under brutal conditions to drive the last spike, The Golden Spike, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. Products could now be manufactured in the east and delivered to the west in under two weeks, benefiting the United States economy, […]
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UP train 339, the mixed from Twin Falls, Idaho, nears its destination of Wells, Nev., in fall 1943. Is Uncle Jim the conductor today? W. B. Wolverton There’s not much there anymore, and few people know that Minidoka, Idaho, was once a busy railroad point. It was also my youthful idea of heaven. That’s where […]
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 […]
