OK, maybe UP is "indifferent" about handling Amtrak trains, and what someone "pulled" enabling ARRA09 funds allocated for the (?) HSR Chicago-St Louis passenger train project to be used to rebuild the G,M&O to access their Elwood IL Global Intermodal facility bordered on criminal. However, no one can argue against how the UP preserves and protects their heritage.
disclaimer: author Long UNP
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Something tells me that content from this book, Ghosts of Gold Mountain, is not part of the docent's script at the California Railroad Museum.
I also don't think the decision to lay rail over Donner rather than the more favorable Beckwurth Pass is addressed as well there.
But both stories have a common denominator.
Posted by yukon11 (Member # 2997) on :
Yes, I wonder why they didn't choose the Beckwourth Pass route instead of Donner Pass.
Here is that route.
I found many contradicting accounts of the 4 ceremonial spikes, on the internet.
gold silver silver iron
gold low quality gold silver iron
gold silver silver gold, silver, iron
gold gold and silver silver iron
And a few other combinations.
I did read where the final spike was just a regular iron spike, not gold. I also read that it was, indeed, gold but a pre-drilled hole was necessary. If they tried to drive in a gold spike without a pre-drilled hole, the gold spike would probably wind up flat as a pancake.
Richard
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Richard, there is a story regarding Donner over Beckwurth, but in this "political correctness" world (which cost me a week on the bench at another site), I had best defer to historical sources.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
Mr. Norman: Probably (I hope) won't happen here. Rather you tell us than have to search for it. I see no reason whatsoever for being penalized for talking about something that happened 150 years ago. That is way too much a 1984 style rewrite of history.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
From what is available at sources such as Wiki, Chief Engineer Theodore Judah had met Jim Beckwurth, an African American who had fought for the Union, had become a "Mountain Man" and had discovered the pass that bears his name. However the "Fab Four" - Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington, Stanford -, who had motives beyond building the railroad with economy and efficiency, shall we say "tolerated" Judah for his "sincerity". The available sources say that the Beckwurth Pass was rejected as being an "inferior route" and construction proceeded over Donner.
While Donner is more scenic and direct than is Beckwurth, the grades and 1000' less elevation makes me wonder "why".
Posted by yukon11 (Member # 2997) on :
I wasn't aware of the origin of "Standard and Poors" and of Mr. Poor's railroad manual.
Richard
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Today, The New York Times has an interesting article regarding the recognition afforded the Chinese during this Sesquicentennial when compared with same at the Centennial.
Fair Use:
But many of the workers who had built the railroad were all but invisible at the ceremony, and in its retelling for many years afterward. They included about 15,000 Chinese immigrants — up to 90 percent of the work force on the Central Pacific line — who were openly discriminated against, vilified and forgotten.
Now those workers are being written back into the history of the railroad, thanks to the dogged efforts of their descendants and of scholars. At the 150th anniversary of the golden spike ceremony on Friday, and at associated events held last week in Utah, thousands gathered to recognize a more complete picture of the monumental feat.
All told; "they came out the better" this time around.
Posted by palmland (Member # 4344) on :
Good interview with Ed Dickens on WGN on the Big Boy posted on another site.
I wonder why the CP Jupiter was wood-fueled, while the UP 119 was a coal burner? Maybe they reckoned the CP had a lot of wood resources coming through the Sierras? Although the UP 119 locomotive was coal-fueled, I read that it started out as a wood burner but switched over to coal at Carbon, Wyoming. I'm not sure if that was true.
