Steam & Excursion > The Driving Of The Last Spike Was Always A Very Big Deal!

With all the capital investment that any railroad made when the built a new rail line, it is no  wonder that they brought out the Top Brass for a ceremony when the job was done and the last spike was set to be driven.  This was clearly the case with the driving of the last spike a few miles east of Oakridge, Oregon in 1926 upon the completion of the Southern Pacific's Natron Cut-off.

On hand for the ceremony on August 7, 1926 was none other than SP's General Manager J.H. Dyer.  Since the new route through the Oregon Cascade Mountains linked Klamath Falls and Eugene, they also had invited for the occasion, "King Klamath Falls" and "Queen Eugene" as we see here.

This was the conclusion of a $34 Million expansion project into Oregon that had begun in 1905, with most of that money spend on the final portion connecting Kirk, Oregon and Oakridge.  We certainly can not blame the SP for wanting to celebrate this line final completion.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/21 03:23 by LoggerHogger.

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The days before PPE.  Hope he had a good aim with that spike maul!

J.H. Dyer had a long career with SP and, as VP, was aboard his business car when SP's Argonaut collided with
the Californian at Tortuga, California in September 1938. 

Judging by that bandaged finger on his right hand, it appears that Mr. Dyer has already met with some grief
prior to this days activities. Hope he doesn't hit that cutie holding the spike.

Charlie
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/21 10:19 by cewherry.

This photo has been on Joel Ascroft's Espee in Oregon site for quite a while. It has the characteristics of being staged to lighten the moment.

http://spcascades.railfan.net/construction.html

I have the original SP negative that this image is from.  I scanned that negative for this posting.  I also have a couple of real photo postcards of this same scene but taken a few moments later when the spike maul is on the spike and then afterwards with Dyer kissing "Queen Eugene".

Martin

TCnR Wrote:
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> This photo has been on Joel Ascroft's Espee in
> Oregon site for quite a while. It has the
> characteristics of being staged to lighten the
> moment.
>
> http://spcascades.railfan.net/construction.html

Actually, when comparing the two, the Tom Dill collection photo is subtly different from Martin's posting.
Various heads have moved, the spike girl is actually smiling in Martin's; and more.

Charlie

Those ladies look like they came off the Mayflower

masterphots Wrote:
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> Those ladies look like they came off the Mayflower

Suspect there's a few people ' in costume '.

Interesting to hear about the number of photos of the event. Which kinda supports the idea that the photos were staged to some extent. Nothing wrong with that, things get kinda slow in the woods sometimes.

Amazing collection.

+ Um, so are we thinking he actually swung and hit the spike while the little girl was holding it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/21 11:44 by TCnR.

Great story.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/21 13:41 by grlhughes.