Steam & Excursion > The Main Players Of The Transcontinental Railroad At Promontory!

This is a historic photo, not only for where and when it was taken, but who is posing in the photo in the crowd in front of Union Pacific's #119 at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869.

Most prominent is Leland Stanford, President of the Central Pacific in the center of the photo hold high the spike mall that he used to drive the Gold Spike during the ceremonies that day.

To the right of Stanford is Silas Seymour, consulting engineer for the UP.  To the right of him with the sledge on his shoulder is Thomas Durant, Vice President of the UP.

To the right further, the man with the white hair is John Duff, one of the Directors of the UP.   Next to him, the man with the side whiskers is Sidney Dillon, another Director for the UP.

In front of Duff is G.M.Dodge, Chief Engineer for the UP.  In front of the woman on the right is Sam Montague, Chief Engineer for the CP.

To the left of Stanford, with the spade, is James H. Strobridge, construction superintendent for the C.P..  The 2 women to the left of Stanford are, first Mrs Strobridge, and then Mrs. Ryan, the wife of CP's Ogden Station agent.  The 2 youngsters are the adopted children of Mr. & Mrs Strobridge.

This was quite a gathering at the remote location of Promontory, 150 years ago today.


Martin



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/19 05:24 by LoggerHogger.

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Thanks Martin, don’t think I’ve seen this one.

Posted from iPhone

Now thats a keeper as it shows more than just someone hitting a spike and a few of the people involved with railroading at the time this is the entire family.

What kind of camera were you using, Martin?

Posted from iPhone

Look at the cars sitting on the siding to the right.  I never knew there was any other track in the area.  All the pictures of the event have just shown the one track that golden spike event took place on.  I wonder if this is on one the parallel ROW's where the UP and CP were building past each other.  The government had to tell them to stop and defined Promitory as the location for the rails to be joined.

On the TV series  "Hell On Wheels"  , Thomas Durant, Vice President of the UP, was not a honest, upstanding citizen, and railroad management person.
Also, some of the things the UP did during the building of the railroad, were not put in a very good light.

Thank you, I look forward to your posts everyday.

Posted from iPhone

Trainman41 Wrote:
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> On the TV series  "Hell On Wheels"  , Thomas
> Durant, Vice President of the UP, was not a
> honest, upstanding citizen, and railroad
> management person.
> Also, some of the things the UP did during the
> building of the railroad, were not put in a very
> good light.
Some of the things that the UP did can't be put into a very good light.  Ever read about the Credit Mobilier scandal?

Is the guy in the center holding a selfie stick?

Bang your head with that selfie stick and you will either see a black hole or a whole bunch of stars you won’t forget very soon!
CM80.46