Promontory

We headed south for Promontory, Utah.  Since we left, I have been trying to add this particular historic site on the itinerary.  I figured we could get to it but it is just kind of out of the way by an hour or more from where we were driving.  With Cody and Yellowstone having been crossed off as destinations due to the weather (I really didn’t want to tow in snow), We were able to add Promontory in.  I’m really glad we did.  I have been a train buff since I was a kid, having been through the whole “build a scale railroad” phase, and this was a cool thing to see.  Also, I just finished the AMC TV series “Hell on Wheels” just before we started this trip, can you say context?

The Golden Spike monument is an hour from everywhere.  Two lane rural farming roads lead you twisting through sage and planted crops, following signs to the Golden Spike and also the “rocket display”.  We follow a large fenced in area and come around the last corner to the sign that says turn left for the monument and see large corporate buildings and facilities on the right and decide to check it out on the way back out.

Hmmmm

We got to the monument, which is a little understated and getting a little weather worn.

We pulled in to the RV friendly lot and go in…Yep, a ranger there to collect the entry fee if you go past the visitors center.  America the Beautiful pass to the rescue again and we don’t pay another fee.  We have been “free rolling” on fees for a while now.  As we walk into the center, they announce a ranger led tour of the engine house where the two locomotives are kept so we joined in.  The ranger told me that I could drive my Beast/Piper combo (all tour participants were driving their own vehicles over) over to the engine house and there would be room to park.  True to his word, we got there and he directed us into a large spot next to the firewood stack.  We got out and headed to the front of the engine house where we could see the gleaming engines inside.

119 The Pride of the Union Pacific

Jupiter, The pride of the Central Pacific

The ranger gathers us around and explains that these are not the actual locomotives, but reproductions.  The original locomotives were kept in service for many years after the golden spike event and were eventually scrapped when they were worn out and at the end of their service lives.  The government contacted Walt Disney to ask him to build the commemorative engines and he declined but referred them to an engineering friend.  The feat of studying period photos and what few drawings remained of the old 4-4-0 engines (no blueprints survived) is, I believe, almost as much a marvel as any engineering task ever.  The two engines are believed to be within 1/4 inch of the originals.  There have been a couple design changes over the years (brakes and boiler safety) but the rest of the engines remain as built originally.  The colors have changed after much research into photos and purchase orders and paint logs to be made as accurate as possible.  Yes Virginia, these locomotives were indeed garishly painted and highly polished in an effort to draw attention to them and promote their individual rail lines.

for the boilermakers out there…the firebox and tubes.

Ranger with Flynn and the 119

After many questions and answers we went back to the visitors center where we got our pins and went out to the actual last spike site.  It is, of course, just another prairie with some track laid through it.

Unassuming and unremarkable except for the extraordinary things that occurred in 1869.

The actual Golden Spike is not here of course.  It was a privately contracted memento and was handed down in the family until eventually being donated to the museum at Stanford University.  You have to go to California to see it.

Our time in this unremarkable very pivotal part of Utah came to an end and we headed back out to the main road.  Turned left to that rocket display and found this…

Fascinating, No?  The interesting things you find in the most out of the way places in this country.  Does anyone out there know about this facility?  Let me know.

Done in the prairie, we head into north Ogden for the Wasatch RV park.  We found them in the Passport America membership book at a rate of 20 bucks a night.  This is a mobile home park that has taken out some of the mobile home sites and re-designated them as RV sites.   Full hookups with septic.  A little strange that the bathrooms, showers and “club” are inside an old double wide mobile home.

What a night…monster Thunder showers with the inherent lightning show.  pretty crazy night but at least it kept the temperatures down.

Next update will be the trip from Ogden to Reno and the national Championship Air Races….yes, I went and yes it’s worth it.

See ya out there,

BFD