Nostalgia & History > Flames Ruin Echo Coal Chutes

I recently had a very pleasant visit with a gentleman who grew up in Echo, Utah, and whose father was the station agent there, as well as several other positions over the years. The attached newspaper clipping gives the date that the wooden coal chute at Echo burned, and he shared a photo of what it looked like before the fire (the view looks northwest). He recalls that he was just 10 years old when it burned, and since the family's home was just 100 feet away, it was quite an exciting night.

The color photo is a UP photo that shows the Fairbanks-Morse concrete chute that replaced it. This was in mid 1941, and UP was making important changes to the Wasatch grade in Weber canyon in preparation for their new 4-8-8-4 4000-class locomotives. UP's no. 4000 arrived in Ogden on September 8, 1941, and took the first eastbound train up the Wasatch grade, for which it was designed, on September 9, 1941.

Don Strack

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Here is another photo of the Echo coal chute. This was taken by Emil Albrecht in August 1946.

Don Strack

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> Here is another photo of the Echo coal chute. This
> was taken by Emil Albrecht in August 1946.


Hello Don & group,

This is a bit off-topic, but have you come across anything in your research that deals with placement of helpers east of Ogden? I notice that they most often placed helpers just ahead of the caboose, but now & then a photo appears showing a head-end helper, in this case a Mikado leading Big Boy 4007.

I'm curious if anyone has knowledge of UP's procedures in that territory in the steam era, to help explain how/why helpers were in different places on different trains.

Thanks much,

Mark

Very interesting! Thanks, Don!

John Bush
Omaha

$8,000 in damages? Boy, prices have sure gone up.

How did the Pony Express (mentioned in the article) in 1941? Surely not horseback at that late of date.

UP had a passenger train named the Pony Express, Denver-LA.