Page 19 - NMRA Roundhouse September-October 2019

Big Steam and Shiny Nails
Martin Ford, Mike Ford, Mike Hewitt and Gerry Howard
4014 and pacers coming down Echo Canyon - photo by Martin Ford
MEMBER ARTICLE
A ll of a sudden, the day of period costumes, swelled by co-opted to arrive! We selected our spot at the
our departure had arrived, months of planning, meetings, discussions were all in the
past - if the arrangements were wrong it was going to be difficult to make major changes to the planned itinerary. There was some built-in flexibility in the ‘plan’ but it wouldn’t cope with any major changes. A lot depended on people we didn’t know who were based a long way from us, specifically the members of the Union Pacific (UP) steam crew, and their partners and sub-contractors, who were trying to return a very large steam en- gine to life in time for the 150th anniver- sary of the Golden Spike - the joining of eastbound and westbound lines to mark the completion of construction of 1,776 miles of track linking Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California. The aim
of the trip was simple - see a Big Boy in steam, participate in the Golden Spike celebrations, do some train watching and anything else that we could fit in.
On the 4th May 2019 we arrived in Salt Lake City and rented a GMC Aca-
dia SUV - with a 3.6 litre V6 it would devour the miles we were planning to cover. The next day we headed out to Promontory Point, the original site of the 1869 meeting between the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads. We were there just in time for the re-enactment of the meeting of the two locomotives - Jupiter and #119. This re-enactment occurs at 10:30am most days. The whole proceedings were managed by National Park Rangers who provided informed commentary as to the history behind the original event. On more formal occasions re-enactors in
members of the audiences, play out the 1869 ceremony. On the day of our visit the honour of inserting the shiny nail fell to Martin, who happened to be stand- ing nearest to the Park ranger when it became time to hand out the jobs.
In the afternoon we planned to find some possible sites for photographing #4014 on her run into Evanston from her overnight at Rock Springs.
Martin placing the golden spike at Promontory - photo Mike Hewitt
The sat nav in the Acadia was really good, it showed both railway lines and some of the more out of the way tracks. We started in Granger WY, looked in on Fort Bridger, and Leroy as well as one or two other more out of the way places. Some of the more remote tracks just petered out before we got to trackage so were discounted. In the end we settled for Leroy which offered multiple opportunities. We headed back to SLC for a bite to eat and an early night. The next day was an early start at 4:00am
to secure a good spot for phtography. The weather was fine - the anticipation high. However, we were not the first
grade crossing, staked our claim and settled in for the wait. Based on the published schedule #4014 was due at about 7:15am but she was behind sched- ule at most of the earlier stops. We were fortunate that there was access to a scanner amongst our ever-expanding group so we had regular updates on where #4014 was. There were delays at Granger where the stop was not only late but had also been extended. Given that we had ventured off the highway on a dirt road to get to our vantage point we were surprised to see a coach com- ing down the track, one of the executive types with double rear wheels! It was the Trains Magazine fan trip coach.
Soon white smoke appeared in the dis- tance, and rounding the bend appeared #4014, followed by Northern #844 and EMD SD70ACe diesel #8937. Big Boy was clearly struggling and just coasting, with serious water leaks from the front engine, #844 was doing the majority
of the work with #8937 providing the breaking effort. The track speed after the crossing was limited to 10 mph due to clearance concerns between the steamers and a helper engine parked in a siding. This was fine from a photographic point of view but not good if you wanted to see the engines working hard. Having cleared the helper, Ed Dickens engineer on #4014 threw some more oil on the fire and #4014 exhausted black smoke as the train picked up speed. By this time, we had been joined by some UP track maintenance crew who had come up
for a break not realising that #4014 was due to come through. As #4014 headed for Evanston, the assembled crowd dispersed leaving only a few of us in the
September/October 2019 - ROUNDHOUSE 19