Nostalgia & History > Golden Spike Centennial - part 2

Photo 5821 is a bit better view of two of the trains using a people filter.

AS was the case in Bakersfield, Cheyenne, North Platte, Alamosa and other places, access to the engine terminals was no problem. Photo 5832 is amazing in the fact that an actual water stand was in use in 1969. If not for the extra "4" this photo could have been in the 1950's.

Photo 5840 is another shot of the water stand.

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Photo 5842 is of fellow railfan Lee Hower.

Turbines were still around as seen in photo 5837.

We also wandered over to the SP facilities and found tired F7 6402 along with SP's first SD45, the 8800 in photo 5848.

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Rio Grande was present with four F's in photo 5849.

Ex-Great Western #75 was operating at the time as seen in photo 5851.

We saw more UP variety in UP F9 533 in photo 5858.

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A view of another turbine in photo 5859.

And, to close out a great three days in May 1969, a couple of shots of the 844(4) in photos 5857 and 5861.

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Heh, heh. Okay Steve, two can play in this game. I might have been oh so skinny at the age of 17, here's what you looked like when you were on the trip at the age of 19, taken in the dome on our train!

One thing Steve didn't mention here is the vast difference between access between the UP and SP yards in Ogden. UP was completely open. We could go anywhere - in the roundhouse, wander all over the tracks, and as long as we were careful, no one said a thing. Of course, there were dozens of fans all over, so it was sort of hard to keep everyone out, especially with 8444 there.

But if any road could, it'd be SP. After spending time over at the UP roundhouse, we decided to look at the SP shops. We barely stepped onto the property when an SP official or policeman stopped us and told us to leave. Similarly, UP had the new Centennial 6900 on display, and it was nose to nose to SP's new SD45 9000. UP had a PR person there with tours through the cab. SP's 9000 was locked up tight. UP also had a display train there of historic equipment. SP did have the CP Huntington and the 4294 cab forward on display in Sacramento.

But I don't want to make it seem like SP was horrible. As someone once said, "SP has forgotten more about passenger service than most railroads ever knew." Other than office car moves, this might have been SP's last great hurrah, as SP ran three 20+ car passenger trains on the days leading up to the Centennial (that was thoughtfully scheduled on a Saturday!) There was the train from Los Angeles that came up the coast overnight, then over the hill. The R&LHS ran the Centennial Plaque Special, which was an all-coach (plus food service) train that ran on that Friday to Truckee and turned. It brought up the plaques for display. Then following it was our train, the Gold Spike Special, and we dedicated those plaques. So, on that one day, Friday, May 9, just about every passenger F unit on the SP system was in use on our trains. And they were all freshly painted and bright. (I need to dig out my slides, scan and post them.)

Of all the trains, probably ours was the one SP cared the most about, running from San Francisco/Oakland. The train ran on schedule and had no operating problems. In the two diners, running kitchen to kitchen, SP brought out old recipes, and with the exception of the flatware and the tablecloths, had all of the old heavy silver out, something that hadn't been in use for some time. Even the SP wine was available. No, SP did a fabulous job on our train. We even had both a dome lounge and a Sunset French Quarter lounge, plus the open platform El Dorado.

Nope, you'll never see anything like that happen again.

Thanks again for the photos, Steve.

Lee Hower

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re: second pic: This really shows the amount of petrocrud that accumulated in yards back then, and not just in between the rails, but between adjacent tracks. Nowadays, absorbent material is placed at idling locations to capture less material than I drool onto my pillow in one night.
...Lorenzo

Well, in looking up that scan I made of Steve several months ago, I realized that I had some scans that I made of my slides back then of the Gold Spike trip for him. So I'll share them with all of you.

The first two shots are of the Gold Spike Special and Centennial Plaque Special in Sacramento. The Gold Spike Special is the one on the right with 6456 on the point - with the icecycle breaker bars on backwards!

The third is of the two trains heading for Ogden, ours and the PRS (I think) excursion from LA. That's our train on the right. The train from LA was laying over several hours for the passengers to go visit John Ascuaga's Nugget. BTW, that train had the WP solarium observation 653 on the back of their train.

Lee Hower
Sacramento

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Thank you, Lee.

That is one of the last, if not the last, photo of me like that. Two months later, the moustache was born, and last month it celebrated its thirty-ninth birthday!

Three more, on the morning of May 10, 1969 -

Arrival of the PRS train from Los Angeles.

Arrival of SP 102, the City of San Francisco.

Arrival of UP 104, the City of Los Angeles. Another UP touch - American flags on all passenger trains on May 10.

So much to see and do! And all of this was before 8:30am!

Lee Hower

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Even the unwanted, unnamed former mail train UP 5 was dressed up. Note the clean E9!

First shot is of the train arriving in Ogden, and the second is of the train after the American flags were installed.

This is taken right after dawn!

These are all the slides that I had scanned and saved on my computer. Hard to envision we are coming up on 40 years ago. Whoa.

And to everyone - Steve and I have restarted our friendship from here on Trainorders. I don't think we've seen each other since 1975, and hadn't had any contact until last year! Pretty amazing.

Lee Hower

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I don't think I have ever seen a consist of any of these Golden Spike Centennial trains. Is there anyone here who has any consists who would be willing to post them?

CTC Board did about 30 years ago

Great photos, guys!! Boy, did I miss the boat. I was single at the time of the 100 year event.. Back from Vietnam with a stash of medals--don't even know where they are <g> and probably could have cared less about Promontory... Big mistake, huh ??

Take LOGGING roads for example-- Never cared for them either-- NOT at all. I remember all the "trip notices".. I ignored them! Today, I own several VIDEOS on various LOGGING lines, and after watching each of them, I now wish I had ridden on them.

And to Messrs "Gillings, Hower and McFlyer---
Please don't speak too harshly about the SP....
They ran a lot of great trips and steam specials at a time when they really didn't have to...
And they donated items to their local communities in big ways!!
I know THAT more than any of you-- I saw them build a steam railroad in a Park..

Thanks again.

KRK

Thanks very much, look at all the blue cars, painted for these trips, what an expesive proposition.

Ken, mcfflyer is me. I can understand what you mean regarding the SP. When SP tried, no one could beat them. Look at those three trains that ran out to Ogden, they had to really shake out the passenger car yards to provide us with enough equipment. Those trains were terrific and ran on time. So much fun. And the equipment was clean. Heh, heh, I think they repainted the entire F unit passenger fleet for the runs. And I do know that SP was great about running excursions, especially back in the 1950s, when they'd run a train just about anywhere. And I do give them credit for running huge excursions right up until Amtrak. And Ken, SP holds a dear spot in my heart, as it was the road that I had my first train trip on when I was about 6 and Dad took me to San Francisco on one of the new Gallery cars, my first long distance trip in 1958 on the Coast Daylight from LA to the Bay Area (we went to see the new Disneyland!), my first overnight trip on the SF Overland in 1961 going to Kansas, and my first sleeper trip, the Gold Spike Special, followed shortly thereafter by a ride on the Cascade to Oregon as I prepared to go to Oregon State.

As for the consists of all the trains - somewhere there exists my 1969 book that lists them all, but I have a great fear that my ex wife threw it out. Too bad as that calendar book had all the consists of this and my other great trip. I used it to provide the consist for an article in the Western Railroader of the PCC-R&LHS about 15 years ago, and haven't seen it since. Bummer!

Glad you all enjoyed the photos. And thanks to Steve for starting this all off!

Lee Hower
Sacramento

Great photos. I think either the SP f-unit lineup or 8444 were my favs.