In their way, they were the heroes of the Golden Spike. There’s a replica of the golden spike the original is normally at the Stanford University Art Museum.ĭon’t miss the chance to drive the Central Pacific’s abandoned right-of-way on the West and East Grade Auto Tours.Īlthough I love the visitor center and the steam locomotives, a lonely drive along the old right-of-way brings me closer to an understanding of the vast, harsh, emptiness that faced the laborers. The visitor center brings the long-ago triumph of the Golden Spike alive, with a video and displays of the primitive tools and light, flimsy rail that hastened this fragile railway across the West. The re-enactors perform on summer Saturdays and holidays. In season, the two locomotives operate under steam. Once the celebratory crowds have left Promontory Summit, the Golden Spike National Historic Park will return to its normal routines, with plenty to see and do.

A miles-long motorcade of chasers jammed the highways. 4014 but still imposing.ĭickens played Big Boy’s whistle like an orchestra wherever spectators clustered. With Ed Dickens, head of the nine-member Steam Crew that performed the restoration, at the throttle, the Big Boy began its journey to Ogden, double-headed with another preserved Union Pacific steam engine, No. Mark Gordon also spoke, as did Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr, who said the previous evening felt like Christmas Eve.įritz’s wife, Julie, helped him break a bottle of Champagne over 4014’s coupler. “We’re here to celebrate the Big Boy and our railroad’s long relation with Cheyenne.” Wyoming Gov. “Good morning, steam-town,” said Lance Fritz, Union Pacific’s head, in opening the ceremony. It had spent its retirement on display at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona until Union Pacific brought it home in 2014. So famous was the Big Boy that seven survive in parks and museums, but only No. This behemoth, built in 1941 for Union Pacific, remained in service until 1959. As many as 5,000 people gathered in Laramie, Wyo., the first stop on the locomotive’s five-day journey to Ogden, Utah, and thousands more came to trackside all along the route. That depot is now a museum, and 2,000 spectators had bought tickets to be there and cheer every blast of 4014’s melodious whistle. On a sunny Saturday morning, the massive locomotive, gleaming black, fresh from the restoration shop where it had spent more than two years, was wreathed in steam as it rolled to a stop in front of the depot. 4014, one of 25 Big Boys, Union Pacific’s largest and best-known steam locomotives and with a connection to Southern California. Golden Spike festivities had gotten off to a spectacular start six days earlier and 460 miles east in Cheyenne, Wyo., with the christening of No.

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Golden railroad spike