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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Jerry A. Pinkepank 1 “Mountain Type” F3A. Briefly in 1947, EMD referred to its steam-generator-equipped, passenger-geared F3s as “The Mountain Type.” These units were intended for use on passenger trains that traversed grades for which E7s were not suitable. In September 1947 Union Pacific got eight F3 A-B-B sets, plus three extra A units, all […]
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 […]
A fast freight rides a two-railroad speedway in May 1971. Jerry A. Pinkepank 1 Cotton Belt freight. A St. Louis Southwestern Railway (SSW, common nickname Cotton Belt) freight rolls north on Missouri Pacific tracks May 8, 1971, at Gorham, Ill., on the 123.7 miles of MoPac trackage rights Cotton Belt used to reach the Illinois […]
A single photo from the 1950s of C&O’s ‘Sportsman’ at a small-city station at Staunton, Va., reveals plenty of small, easily overlooked details. 1 – Freight house Staunton (“Stan-ton”) in 1950 had a population of 19,927. All towns of this significance once had a freight house where less-than-carload (LCL) freight was handled. Warehousemen used a […]
