Click on any picture below to enlarge
Releasing a Little Steam
Click on any picture below to enlarge
Releasing a Little Steam
EXACTING PAYMENT
During November 1868, Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works
of Paterson, New Jersey built Union Pacific locomotives
"116", "117", "118", "119", and "120". Seven months later,
"119" received the call to pull Union Pacific Vice-President
Thomas Durant and his contingent of dignitaries to
Promontory Summit. Like Stanford, Durant originally chose a
different locomotive to take part in the Golden Spike
Ceremony.
Enroute to Promontory for the May 8th Ceremony, the
Durant Special was forced onto a siding track and stopped at
the little town of Piedmont, Wyoming, not far from the Utah
border. There to "greet" Durant were over four hundred laid
off tie cutters, who had been waiting more that three months
to be paid.
Durant's coach was immediately chained to the siding,
and, after a delay of nearly two days, the men's pay
arrived. The delay caused Durant substantial embarrassment,
and cost his original locomotive (whose number is unknown)
her place in history.
MORE PASSAGES
While Durant was delayed, the rain swollen Weber River
continued to rise. When the Durant Special reached the river
at Devil's Gate Bridge, the locomotive's engineer saw the
raging water had removed some bridge supports. This left the
bridge unsafe for the heavy engine, and the engineer refused
to cross. Instead, after assuring Durant that the bridge
would support the lighter passenger coaches, the engineer
gave each coach a push with his locomotive. The cars of
shaking dignitaries coasted across the equally shaking
structure. Unfortunately, this action left Durant without a
locomotive.
A hastily wired message to Ogden requested rescue.
Sitting in Ogden were the five Union Pacific locomotives
"116" through "120". When the call came, "119" was next to
the main line and so took the first UP locomotive's place at
the Golden Spike Ceremony.
After May 10, 1869, "119" continued service as a freight
locomotive. In 1882, she was renumbered "343" and served out
her days until scrapped in 1903. Like "Jupiter", "119's"
sacrifice brought her railroad a scrapper's fee of one
thousand dollars.
