Steam & Excursion > Broadcast video of the Golden Spike ceremony

OGDEN, Utah -- The Union Pacific Railroad is marking the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad.The celebration includes a reenactment of the moment the golden spike was driven to unite the two rail lines, which will occur in Ogden.The reenactment includes "Big Boy", a historic steam locomotive.

https://fox13now.com/2019/05/09/ogden-celebrates-150-year-anniversary-of-transcontinental-railroad-with-golden-spike-reenactment/

The locomotive that should be there to meet the 4014 is the 4449.

Interesting report. Someone needs to inform the script writer for that reporter that the Gold Spike was NOT driven at "Promontory POINT"!  Everybody seems to fall into that same trap, as the "big event" on May 10, 1869 took place at "Promontory Summit". Plus, ever since about 1965, the National Park Service has had the actual location where the spikes were driven as a National Park, and the full size replica steam locomotives were delivered to that site in about 1979.

wp1801 Wrote:
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> The locomotive that should be there to meet the
> 4014 is the 4449.

Well, yes and a few organizations tried. But it's a "4014 event", so 4449 could NOT have been included.

The whole ceremony could have used about 10,000% more whistle.

kurt765 Wrote:
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> The whole ceremony could have used about 10,000%
> more whistle.

Oh good grief!!!!!

HotWater Wrote:
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> kurt765 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The whole ceremony could have used about
> 10,000%
> > more whistle.
>
> Oh good grief!!!!!

It didn't even toot once when it made its grand entrance. I just found that puzzling.

HotWater Wrote:
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> Interesting report. Someone needs to inform the
> script writer for that reporter that the Gold
> Spike was NOT driven at "Promontory POINT"!
>  Everybody seems to fall into that same trap, as
> the "big event" on May 10, 1869 took place at
> "Promontory Summit". Plus, ever since about 1965,
> the National Park Service has had the actual
> location where the spikes were driven as a
> National Park, and the full size replica steam
> locomotives were delivered to that site in about
> 1979.

Please see the Trains Magazine special issue article that takes the view that there was no distinction between Promontory, Promontory Point, and Promontory Summit in official documentation in 1869. The difference seems to have come about later.

HotWater Wrote:
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> Interesting report. Someone needs to inform the
> script writer for that reporter that the Gold
> Spike was NOT driven at "Promontory POINT"!
>  Everybody seems to fall into that same trap, as
> the "big event" on May 10, 1869 took place at
> "Promontory Summit". Plus, ever since about 1965,
> the National Park Service has had the actual
> location where the spikes were driven as a
> National Park, and the full size replica steam
> locomotives were delivered to that site in about
> 1979.

Oh I agree Hotwater, but the average Joe Six-pack does not know or care. The reporter and camera man in the video kept showing 844 and calling it Big Boy.

Makes no difference on the Promontory issue in 50 more years. The entire area will be divided into suburbs, houses for miles.

I must agree with wp1801 that the only true recreation of the big moment would have included hertiage
from both east and west. Otherwise this is simply a Corporate event wherein the UP pats itself on the
back for public relations purposes. Could have used a flashy poster to do the same thing much cheaper...
not to mention that the Big Boy is barely moving and mechanically unsound. Five years and we get a
half-***** show. Oh,well the uneducated public could care less. I for one am disappointed and don't
blame Ed Dickens and crew but the corporate philosophy of what is truly important. CP/SP is still
well and fondly remembered in some circles.

Was a few minutes late but got to watch most of the live broadcast on FB.  It was a normal corporate/politican type event.  Think my wife only rolled her eyes once, maybe told the governor to quit talking so much.  I do think the video should have gone a few minutes longer to show the steam crews standing on the front like the famous photo.  From the clapping, it didn't seem like there was a big crowd, curious how many showed up.  Overall, I liked it and think they did a nice job, even if they didn't blow the whistle enough.  

Nathan

Really, so 4449 tried... but Ed said no... that makes it even more of a shame. This could have been done right, hell you could have had 4014 and 4449 meet and that would have been better. Would have been amazing to follow 4449 over donner on its journey and 4014 or 844 on its I mean there were trains from both directions not one. Sad.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/19 14:25 by goduckies.

Well the fact is, what is Union Pacific corporation today is the corporate successor (by all the various mergers, etc. over the years) to the companies that built both sides of the transcontinental railroad.  So technically, Union Pacific built the whole thing.  There is no one left to represent the building of western portion.  I don't see what is wrong with UP celebrating the accomplishment of the many companies (and their predecessor companies) that make up the UP railroad today. 

Yes they could have done it the way they did, but paying homage to their predecessors with having the 4449 go from Sacramento and the 844 or 4014 from Omaha and meeting would have been epic.

Posted from Android

goduckies Wrote:
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> Yes they could have done it the way they did, but
> paying homage to their predecessors with having
> the 4449 go from Sacramento and the 844 or 4014
> from Omaha and meeting would have been epic.
>
> Posted from Android

Epic for who?  Do you really think anyone cares which locomotives meet in 2019,  other than we steam fans?  For the general public,  they will see the World's Biggest Steam Locomotive meet another big steam locomotive and they'll be (hopefully) thrilled and have a great memory of the event they witnessed.   In the end, this is a huge public relations event calling attention to a historic event that took place 150 years ago.

goduckies Wrote:
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> Really, so 4449 tried... but Ed said no... that
> makes it even more of a shame. This could have
> been done right, hell you could have had 4014 and
> 4449 meet and that would have been better. Would
> have been amazing to follow 4449 over donner on
> its journey and 4014 or 844 on its I mean there
> were trains from both directions not one. Sad.
>
> Posted from Android

Ed isn’t God all mighty.  That decision should come from Omaha.

JB

As someone who was there, watching the UP media people walk around with stress on their faces, and all the verbiage coming from UP keeping on the "Union Pacific" message, makes it pretty clear that the concderns of many of the people posting on Trainorders were not even in their world of thinking.This was a UP corporate event primarily targeted at the national media, and to a lesser extent the local media from along the route.  Poor 844 is barely mentioned, and some reporters, it seems, think it is part of "the Big Boy".

So I'm just enjoying the fact that whatever the thinking and decisions from Omaha are, I get to enjoy a 4-8-4 and 4-8-8-4 on the mainline.

Overall the setup for people to watch was not that good. There was a very small set of bleachers way back but didn't help much. After the main ceremonies people tried to circulate in to take photos but those involved in the ceremony just stood around talking when they could have moved back.

Posted from Android

Railroad didn't reach the Point until Lucin Cut-Off built  long after TransCon completed.

Steve Donaldson
Pacific Grove, CA

As the UP ever let steam locomotives other than their own participate in their corporate events?  I don’t remember that ever happening.  Even in 1969, High Iron’s 759 was replaced by UP power once the excursion from New York reached UP rails.

Dave