We caught the Amtrak at 2:00 in the afternoon in Chicago and were supposed to arrive in Salt Lake City at 11:00 PM the following day. Everything was going smoothly until the train went through a detector and found a brake that was hanging up on the last car of the train. There was a siding not too far up the track they limped up to and dropped the car. They then had to add a car back on in Denver. Altogether we arrived about five hours late. Didn't exactly get our money's worth out of the hotel room, but didn't bother myself or Cuzzin Ricky much. We just were happy to get off the train after 38 hours in the saddle. I think both of us are a bit too old for riding coach on a long distance run.
After we got up and rolling a few hours later, we headed to Promontory Point. They do a re-enactment of the two trains meeting up, which we were lucky enough to see. The site is a national park, so it's all nicely done. It's nice that people get a chance to see steam trains under power. My folks took me to see the last scheduled steam train on the C&O when it ran through Griffith, Indiana in '56 when I was six years old. There were some steam trains running for a couple of years after that, but for all practical purposes, steam was done by 1960. Which means, there has been a couple generations of folks who may have never seen a steam loco in operation. The two at Promontory Point put on a good show but the place is not really close to anything. You have to want to go there to end up there. Worth the trouble, though.
We stopped off in Ogden, Utah on the way back to Salt Lake to see the museums at the old Union Station. There's the train, cowboy, car, and John Browning museum under roof, as well as trains on display outside. The top photo shows the safe were the Golden Spike is kept - it's not the real one, however. That one's in the Smithsonian. The middle photo is from the John Browning museum. That museum is impressive if you are at all interested in firearms. Browning was a genius, no doubt about it. He was also a Mormon with three wives. I'm not sure if that helped or hindered him but he was a prolific inventor and husband. Bottom photo is the UP turbine. I'd seen photos of this monster and it's definitely big when you get a chance to stand next to it. It's nice that there's a place where these things are displayed where you get a chance to see them, even if its just a static display.
After Ogden it was back to Salt Lake for the next leg of the adventure after a full night's sleep.
2 comments:
That GTEL loco is cool. I didn't know anything about it until now. Looks similar to FA's. Makes sense considering it was made by Alco-GE. That safe is the real stunner though. I'd love more info on that thing.
There was also another loco that was made by splicing two power units together. It was a long beast as well. If you ever get out to Ogden, check out the museum.
The safe had some writing on the side and some decoration in gold paint. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of that.
Post a Comment