Nostalgia & History > The End (pt 40): ...to end all Ends!

Many times in this great hobby we come to know, or know of certain photographers who are indelibly linked to one of the railroads they shoot. For example: if I were to toss the name “Joe McMillan” out there, the SANTA FE would immediately spring to mind for just about every railfan on the planet. In this thread I’m experiencing that very same thing. Twice!

I never got the opportunity to meet Mr Emil Albrecht of Ogden, UT before he passed. But I did get to meet his close friend & the caretaker recipient of his RR slide collection, the incomparable Jim Watson. Through my scanning of Mr Albrecht’s slides -courtesy of Jim- I have come to think of Emil as “Mr Union Pacific”, at least in the Utah ~ Idaho ~ western Wyoming area of the Overland Route. And when I met Jim in 1976, he unfortunately failed to ignore me! The result was I just never went away. In meeting Jim it was a 21 year old irresistible force (read: Santa Fe fan) vs a 30-something immovable object (read: UP fan). In a subsequent handful of late 70s ~ early 80s tag-along trips with Jim on his business travels I was introduced to such hallowed UP shrines as North Platte, Sherman Hill & the Omaha/Council Bluffs arena. So for me, Jim is the epitome of a Nebraska ~ eastern Wyoming UP fan.

In this thread these 2 undeniable UP characters combine forces to produce 2 of the coolest UP images I’ve ever been involved with, especially since joining TO back in ’11. Forget the fact that both of Emil’s Ektachrome slides have suffered some very awkward color shifting. Instead, focus on the visual impact of what Emil shot & how he shot them! I think you’re gonna like ‘em both…

1. In helper service UP 4-6-6-4 #3959 is seen here cut in ahead of a pair of wooden, steam era UP cabeese. According to a very reliable source*, who happens to know thing or 2 about UP Challengers, the extra caboose is most likely deadheading (with its crew). Photographer Albrecht is standing close to his quarry, which suggests to me he is between this snorting beast & a rocky wall. A 36 ft PFE reefer is sliding by, making the UP flavor of this thread fly right off the chart!

2. In the “away” shot UP caboose 2674 has rear end honors. And for me this second image does nothing to dispel my theory in caption #1. If I’m right, can you just imagine the operatic cacophony Emil’s ears soaked up as he took these two slides? How many of you steam fans out there just felt your knees go weak at the prospect… ;^)
Both of these classic steam/helper scenes were taken near Taggart, UT in April of 1953. (Location corrected per multiple replies below)
Two outstanding, albeit Ektachrome slides taken by Mr Emil Albrecht.
*My source is none other than Mr Bob Krieger of Cheyenne, WY (aka “Bob3985” here on TO)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Watson (UP6900)
remembering the late Emil Albrecht

And thank you Jim, for allowing me to post them here on TO!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/01/23 02:05 by santafe199.

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Dramatic!

Pic 2 has conductor looking out caboose window in spite of snow and cold.  

Speaking of Jim, I just got off the phone with him. He has an idea I've got the wrong location. That's entirely possible because of the hi-volume, assembly-line scanning technique I have to use when scanning several hundred sides at a time. It's very easy to have a location for 3 or 4 slides in a row carry over to the next couple of slides from some other location. And I've never been to that part of the UP system, so I don't know the territory at all. If anyone has a definitive correction please feel free to chime in with it...

Lance/199

A dramatic look at the 1953 UP! Very NICE!!

Larry

I am sure this is east of Ogden in Echo Canyon.  Reason I am 87 have watched and filmed 3900s as helpers in the canyon.  I know Bob Krieger he knows me.
Blaine McKinney
In American Fork

BlaineM Wrote: > ... I am sure this is east of Ogden in Echo Canyon ...

Thanks Blaine, and that would make perfect sense! Among many other places, Emil did quite a bit of shooting in Echo Canyon. I'll go with that as a working correction, and if somebody yells otherwise we'll have to have a debate*... :^)

Lance/199

After a phone chat with "ironmtn" (see below) and a little cell-phone guided tour in Google Maps I am now totally convinced the location is just through the double bridges east of the double track tunnel east of Taggart. Once I dropped the little street view dude down old US 30 it all fell into place: easy access, shooting angles, everything. In spite of the fact that I-84 was still many years in the future. I've never been to this area in person, but the hook is in now. DEEP! Once this chump-virus crap is gone this will be a priority destination for an extended railfan tour......

wabash2800 Wrote: > ... slight correction … loco is 3959 and not 3953 ...
Correct! That was just my patebetd sloppy proofreading. The year of the shot got tangled up with the eng #...  :^(

Odyssey Wrote: > … I'll second the Taggart location ...
As they say, majority rules (as in an 8 million vote lead... :^)

MEKoch Wrote: > … Pic 2 has conductor looking out caboose window in spite of snow and cold …
Yeah. Note all the steam/exhaust over the train in both pics. Having just come out of a tunnel at a fairly slow speed that crewman is getting fresh air into the caboose. Exactly like MRL helper crews do when cut into trains climbing Mullan & Bozeman passes. Besides, even with snow on the ground I don't imagine it would be winter-time cold in April...

*debate now concluded...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/20 01:38 by santafe199.

Wonderful, dramatic images, pure UP at its best. Just really something. Thanks to you all (Jim, Emil, Lance), each in your own way, for making it possible for us to enjoy.

Bob Krieger and others with more UP knowledge will have the final sign-off on the location. But I am going to also agree on a location east of Ogden, but in Weber Canyon, not Echo Canyon. I spent a lot of time in those parts during my Colorado years and when I used to travel to Utah on business, and I got to know the area well. And I got reacquainted with the area in two years ago in May while chasing the Big Boy.

I'll go out on a limb a bit further and suggest that the specific location in Weber Canyon is Taggart, where the double-track main comes out of a twin tunnels and immediately crosses the Weber River on two through-truss bridges. What looks like one of the spans can be seen down the track amidst the steam and smoke. And while I only knew Taggart as it is today, with I-84 crossing right overhead and squeezed into the canyon with the river and the railroad, the general layout sure feels like Taggart.

In any case, marvelous images. Thanks again!

MC



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/20 21:19 by ironmtn.

Another slight correction: I think the loco is 3959 and not 3953..

Thanks for sharing.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Thanks Lance for making the effort and producing two
amazing images ... you do have a knack in helping the
"WayBack Machine" transcend time ...

I'll second the Taggart area as the likely location ... and the 4014
also focused the time warp there with its runs in 2019 "BBC"  (Back Before Covid)

Odyssey
Evergreen, CO

Having had a chance to see the photos, that does appear to be the bridges at Taggart in Weber Canyon.
I have always enjoyed that location for a photo location. It is an easy drop off I-84 down to the parking lot near these bridges.
Having attended the U of Utah centuries ago (pre-interstate) the routing from my home in Illinois to Salt Lake took me down this route.
At that time I fell in love with the Wasatch area. It was also my favorite piece of UP railroad as I traveled the system in the heritage locomotives.
Nice work of resurrecting the old Ektachromes Lance.
 

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

santafe199 Wrote:
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> A 36 ft PFE
> reefer is sliding by....

The plug door on that car gives it away as a class R-40-26, one of 2000 built by Southern Pacific Equipment between July 1951 and May 1952. It's a 40 foot car. Equipment diagram from Dick Harley is attached.

Arved Grass
Fleming Island, FL

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No mention of the fact they are running left handed on double track? Which I think was standard UP procedure at Taggart.
Dave in MT

monaddave Wrote:
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> No mention of the fact they are running left
> handed on double track? Which I think was standard
> UP procedure at Taggart.
> Dave in MT

Dave,
Until the most recent CTC installation the UP ran left handed in this territory.
The westbound was the old original grade that was quite steep.
The eastbound was a newer grade that is compensated and not as steep.
Both mainlines get back to the UP's normal running after they pass over each other at Curvo, UT.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

There are a few of us who remember the steam era, and all it's trappings.  Steam power had great atraction no matter what it was doing, but powering a heavy train upgrade could be the most spectacular of all it's duties.
I don't recall this particular grade, but remember well the many helper grades I experienced in my early years in the '40s and '50s.  I believe it was in '47 and '48 we travelled east on the SP/UP/C&NW Gold Coast.....departure from Ogden on #24 was at 1900 hrs, so I was likely awake for the show.
Helper grades, helper terminals.....a whole 'nother story.....largely missing from today's railroading.  If these photos had sound, eh?

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Back in these days the helpers would cutoff at Wahsatch and use the center siding to get over on the westbound main to head back west.
There is still a water tank at this location just off I-80. 
Folks told me that the helper engine would uncouple from the train west of the center siding. Then the train would pull east of the siding switch.
Then the rear brakeman would line the switch toward the center siding and the conductor would bleed the caboose brakes off, and signal go ahead to make the drop. 
They get rolling when the conductor gives the engineer an easy sign to get the slack, pulls the pin and gives a go ahead sign.
The helper takes off into the center siding, the brakeman throws the switch back for the main and the caboose rolls up into the back of the train.
Couple up the air and the are off to Evanston to change crews. The helper crew talks to the dispatcher to get permission to go back on east main to take water or head west on
the west main.
 

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY