Western Railroad Discussion > Trains and Church Buildings

One of the joys of railfanning for me is the atmosphere surrounding the trains. The everpresent on-the-hour chime of a church building adds to the experience of watching trains in the city.

The St. Anthony of Padua Catholic parish is part of the experience of railfanning at Helper. The church parish hall and sanctuary can be seen in this photo to the right of the tunnel motors. The venerable structure borders busy Janet Street, Main Street, and the Rio Grande mainlines. It would probably make for an interesting experience at Sunday communion to have a set of SD40T-2's roar by at notch eight headed out of town!

James Belmont

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Catholic Church in Utah? I've never heard of this before.

cdub wrote:

> Catholic Church in Utah? I've never heard of this before.
>

The Mormon church influence is strongest along the Wasatch Front. Carbon and Emery Counties are ethnically diverse and tend to be Catholic/Protestant/and Democratic.

The cities of Price/Helper/Wellington/Green River and Moab are largely exceptions to the Utah rule.

Okay, enough of that. Back to trains!

James

RioGrande3001 wrote:

> cdub wrote:
>
> > Catholic Church in Utah? I've never heard of this before.
> >
>
> The Mormon church influence is strongest along the Wasatch
> Front. Carbon and Emery Counties are ethnically diverse and
> tend to be Catholic/Protestant/and Democratic.
>
> The cities of Price/Helper/Wellington/Green River and Moab
> are largely exceptions to the Utah rule.
>
> Okay, enough of that. Back to trains!
>
> James

Jim,

Thanks for the quick lesson of religious demographics in the state of Utah. I just always assumed that the whole state was Mormon.

Actually, the links between the Mormen Church and the building of the trans-con railroad are pretty interesting. Brigham Young had lucrative contracts with both builders (CP, SP) at the same time,and during part of the contruction, actually grading roadbeds adjacent to each other between Ogden and western Utah. This work came at a time when the Mormen Church and its members were land rich but capital poor, had been suffering through a couple years of drought, and badly needed the money. Probably can't say that contracts saved the Mormen colonization of Utah, but it greatly contributed to it. UP gave Mormen emigrants from the east free passage for at least some time afterward as part of the grading agreement, bringing in more of the faithful.

Don Hall
Yreka, CA

I went to Sunday Mass there Mothers' Day morning in 1991 and I knew a westbound was due to take a helper. The ushers seemed so thrilled I was up in a flash to let someone in the SRO Church have my seat. Then some grade schools kids came in to do a Mother's Day recitation. Mass was over just before the train arrived.====>J|/\\/\\

Here comes the "Nickel Plate" up the center aisle!