About 100 years ago, railroad travel was the latest, greatest, fastest, safest, and most efficient form of transportation available. Utah was in the center of the picture in 1869 when crews finished the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Summit.
At the height of railroading, more than 200,000 miles of track crisscrossed the country, more than a million freight cars were hauling goods, and passenger trains carried people at speeds of 127 mph. In the last 50 years, cars and planes have taken over most of the people-moving, but trains still play a vital role in Utah by carrying coal, livestock, and other freight.
Today, a few sights and sounds remain to remind us of the importance railroading has played in Utah's history. No matter where you live or where you go, you're probably not far away from either a track or a train whistle. So when you see or hear a train, take a closer look, listen more carefully, and see what you can learn. Also, visit one of Utah’s many railroad attractions. Find descriptions and locations at www.denverrails.com. (Click the link for “Over 1,300 Railroad Attractions in the U.S.”)
ALIVE
A Memory of Steam Locomotives
by Robet S. Mikkelson
Robert Mikkelsen grew up in the railroad town of Echo, Utah. Here is his memory of the big steam locomotives that rolled past his home. In the 1950s, diesels replaced steam locomotives—so today the sight of one of these huge machines is rare. Needless to say, if you ever get a chance to see or ride one, take it! |
 |
Their massiveness, their billowing smoke, their clouds of steam, their headlights tunneling through the dark, the blurred motion of their wheels and side rods, even their sheen of oil and coal dust have been captured in countless photographs. I do not have to depend on memory to picture how steam locomotives looked.
But only memory brings back their smells and sounds and feel. Hot metal and oil were their essence, often overpowered by a dense coal gas that made you hold your breath until it cleared, leaving a thick aftertaste. If you were standing close enough, a steam blow-off could drench your clothes and burn your nose and throat. And they routinely showered you with hot, sulfury cinders. (A few always got down your neck before you could pinch your collar tight. A hot one in your eye would stick to the eyeball. The only thing that would lift it off was the charred end of a sharpened matchstick.)
I can still hear the clanking of their rods, the heavy grind of their drivers, the beat of steam exhaust pistoning up their stacks. Even an engine waiting on a sidetrack was busy with sounds…. There would be little rolling surges in its boiler, the clunk of air compressor pistons working, and the constant hiss of steam escaping from somewhere. A deep glow was always in the firebox, a breath of smoke exhaling up the stack. When an engineer invited you up into the cab you could feel an occasional shiver through the steel plates under your feet. Alive. There was no other way to think of them.
From "Growing Up Railroad: Remembering Echo City," in Utah Historical Quarterly, Fall 1994.
Different kinds of freight cars carry different kinds of loads.
When you see a train, see how many kinds of cars you can identify. In this 1989 picture. look for:
Boxcars. These carry items that need protection from the weather. The cargo is loaded through sliding doors on the side.
Flatcars. This platform on wheels carries large items. It can be attached directly to a truck when they reach their destination.
Tankers. These carry liquids of all kinds—milk, corn syrup, oil, and more.
WHISTLE SIGNALS
Two short blasts: The train is about to depart.
Three short blasts: The train will move in reverse.
Two long blasts, one short blast, and one long blast: Warning to people/animals on the track. The train is approaching a public crossing, tunnel, area of restricted visibility, or another train.
|
DID YOU KNOW???
- At the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1969, there were a whole bunch of “last spikes,” because people kept pulling the spikes out and taking them home for souvenirs. They even hacked off pieces of the “last” rail! Crews replaced many rails and dozens of spikes before the souvenir hunters stopped stealing the “last” ones.
- The U.S. created Standard Time in 1883 to make train schedules consistent. Before that, clocks between cities in the same state could vary by as much as 30 minutes.
- In 1902-03 the Central Pacific Railroad laid about 35 miles of track across the northern Great Salt Lake. Crews dumped rock and gravel into the lake to build a causeway, but at the deepest parts they built a trestle out of 38,250 trees, mostly from Oregon. The Lucin Cutoff cost $8 million.
- Trains now haul 60 percent of the coal that produces most of our nation's electricity. And 2/3 of all new car shipments are made by train.
|
top of page
