From Archer Hill, Robin and I drove into Cheyenne.
The Wyoming Merci Car. In the winter of 1947-48, the United States began a relief effort to war-torn France and Italy. Citizens donated more than seven hundred box cars of goods, food and clothes to an "American Friendship Train". In gratitude, a group of French citizens organised a private effort to thank the people of the US for their assistance in the two world wars and for the relief aid. The result was the forty-nine box car "Merci Train". The train arrived in New York aboard the steamship Magellan on 3rd February 1949. One box car was for each of the states, and one was to be shared between the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii. They were called "40 et 8" cars because the French military rated them to carry forty soldiers or eight horses.
We drove over to Holliday Park.
Union Pacific Big Boy 4-8-8-4 4004 built by American Locomotive Company in 1941. It made its last revenue run on October 31st, 1958 and was then placed in storage before being officially retired in 1962. The following year, it was donated to the City of Cheyenne and was moved to Holliday Park by UP track crew on June 28th, 1963.
The Union Pacific Cheyenne station built in 1887.
Part of Union Pacific's historical collection.
The Union Pacific Steam Shop; inside the door I espied Union Pacific 4-8-4 844.
Union Pacific DD40AX 6936 was seen moving a canteen water tender to couple up to Union Pacific 844. We then drove over to the BNSF yard.
The BNSF yard in Cheyenne.
The former Colorado and Southern station built in 1957.
In Lyons Park is Union Pacific 2-6-0 1242, ex. Union Pacific 1476 1898, nee Union Pacific Railway 1476, built by Cooke Locomotive and Machine Works in 1890. From 1931 to 1955, it was assigned to subsidary Saratoga and Encampment Valley Railroad then upon retirement, donated to the City of Cheyenne in 1955. It is one of the oldest surviving locomotives from the Union Pacific roster and one of only two surviving engines owned by the Union Pacific from the era when E. H. Harriman controlled the railroad.
From here we went to the grade crossing at Southwest Drive.
BNSF 6035 North with an empty coal train.
Union Pacific 8455 East was sitting just to the west of Southwest Drive.
BNSF 6035 North crossing the bridge over the Union Pacific mainline.
Union Pacific 8455 East with CSX 112 headed for the Cheyenne yard. Now for a series of over-and-under shots.
Good rail action at the old Tower A site. We drove west over Sherman Hill and through a major thunderstorm which made day look like night. It stopped by Burford so I asked Robin if he would like to see Ames Monument and he agreed. At an elevation of 8,247 feet, this monument stands at what once was the highest point on the route of the Union Pacific Railroad. The tracks were rerouted a few miles to the south in 1901, but the monument still looms over the surrounding plains and can be easily accessed from Interstate 80. Completed in 1882 at a cost of $64,000, the structure honors Oakes and Oliver Ames, financiers and politicians whose business skills were largely responsible for the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The Ames brothers took control of the management and financing of the Union Pacific portion of the railroad at President Abraham Lincoln's request. Prior to their involvement with the railroad, only 12 miles of track had been completed. Not long after the railroad's completion in 1869, however, Oakes Ames found himself at the center of a massive scandal concerning the railroad's financing.
The monument was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, famed architect of Trinity Church in Boston, and was Richardson's only commission west of St. Louis. The monument also features two bas-relief sculptures of the Ames brothers -- Oakes on the east side and Oliver on the west -- crafted by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
The east side of the Ames Monument.
The storm we had passed through.
The north side of the Ames Monument.
The west side.
The Ames Monument and the storm.
My car and the storm. From here we went to Hermosa.
An eastbound train had just departed.
There were no trains here so we proceeded to Laramie.
The Laramie Union Pacific station built in 1924. Next we walked over in LaBonte Park.
Union Pacific caboose 25232 1959, nee Union Pacific 3936, built by the railroad in 1952. It ended its life in Marysville, Kansas and was retired in May 1986. It then became the Laramie Visitor Information Center for the Chamber of Commerce, with its interior remodelled for office purposes, until at least 2006. It was moved along with the other stock to Railroad Heritage Park in 2011.
Union Pacific bunk car 176163 1937, nee automobile car 152456, built by the Ralston Steel Car Company in Columbus, Ohio in 1929. It served throughout the Union Pacific system, carrying a variety of freight in addition to vehicles. In 1955, it was converted to non-revenue, six-man bunk car 06778, including installing windows and a door and remodelling the interior with sleeping accommodation, a cooking area and restroom. In 1957, it was renumbered 906778. The car was sold for scrap in October 1976 and was subsequently bought by the Wyoming Colorado Railroad. It stood in the Laramie yard until about 1987, when it was converted into the ticket office for the railroad's passenger excursion trains and received its present paint scheme, security grilles and decorative wood panels. WYCO's excursion trains ceased in 1996 and the car was sold for scrap in 2008. The following year, a local campaign raised funds to buy the car from the salvager and donate it to the City of Laramie.
Union Pacific 2-8-0 535, nee Oregon Short Line 975, built by Baldwin in 1903. In 1936, 535 was leased to the Union Pacific then after conversion to oil in September 1952, 535 served on the UP Coalmont Branch between Laramie and Coalmont, Colorado, and in the Laramie area hauling freight, pulling excursion trains and working in the yards. The following year, 535 was renumbered 6535. It last operated in the Laramie area in 1957 and was finally retired in 1958. It was donated to the City of Laramie in 1959 and placed on display in LaBonte Park. Wasatch Railroad Contractors and Black Hills Trucking moved it to its current location in Railroad Heritage Park in February 2011.
Union Pacific snow plough 900015, nee Union Pacific 015, built by the railroad in 1959 from from Tender 12-C-115 in December 1953 in Pocatello, Idaho, and was used to clear lines over Sherman Summit and other places in the Rocky Mountains. In May 1959, the railroad renumbered the plow 900015, at which time it appears to have been working in western Nebraska. It was then stationed in Wyoming in early 1979. The Wyoming Colorado Railroad bought the UP's Coalmont Branch in November 1987 at which time it also acquired 900015. On January 8th, 1989 the plow derailed at Fox Park, Wyoming, sustaining serious structural damage. It was not repaired and returned to Laramie to be stored in the railroad yard. The City of Laramie bought the plow in early 2011.
Robin and I then drove to the Motel 8 and checked in for the night.
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