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Museum wigwags/Ogden
Ogden Union Station


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This Magnetic Signal Company "Peach Basket" wigwag is on display at the Ogden Union Station 
Museum. These were commonly found throughout the Union Pacific system.

Bob Johnson gives us more info on the museum:

The museum is located at/in the old Ogden Union Station.  Located at 2501 Wall Ave. There is a nominal admission charge of $3.00 that gets you into all of the museums and is good all day. Their phone number is (801) 629-8535.  Hours are Mon - Sat 10-5. And open Sundays 11-3 between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. 

The railroad museum is the Utah Railroad Museum.  They have several outdoor displays with full sized quipment in various states of restoration and some awaiting restoration.  Part of the equipment is under a "locomotiveport" (carport on steroids?).

Equipment on display include a UP Centennial, UP 8500 HP gas turbine, UP FEF-2 833 (4-8-4), an SP GP9 and SP bay window caboose.  Other equipment on display include a UP CA-1 wooden caboose, a UP and a SP 0-6-0 switchers, a former Santa Fe Alligator, a number of freight cars some passenger equipment and some MOW equipment.  Not on display but also in the collection is a UP rotary snow plow.  Somewhere in the collection is a D&RGW narrow gauge 2-8-0,  undergoing a very over due restoration, (no attention since being donated in 1941 to Salt Lake City).

Indoor displays include a number of dioramas of areas along the UP and SP right of way in Wyoming, Utah and California.  They also have the upper portion of a bent from the old trestle that SP had built across the Great Salt Lake.  There is a display area that has windows trackside and that is where the wigwag is housed.  There are examples of water pipe (wood) that was used to transport water to remote water tanks on the 1869 route for the railroad.  They also have the cab/nose off of a UP GP30 that is set up as a simulator of sorts.

The building also houses the John M. Browning Firearms Museum located upstairs. The firearms museum displays handguns, rifles and larger firearms.

The Browning-Kimble Car Museum is very nice collection of old automobiles (fully restored cars) all but one of which are drivable. The one exception is a 1904 curved dash Oldsmobile. 

The Natural History Museum has a collection that is also on display; interesting fossils, a 44,000-carat piece of quartz (19 pounds) and that sort of thing. 

There is also a small fine arts gallery with about 40 items on display, many for sale. 

There is a nice restaurant, Union Grill, with a view of the tracks from the dining room.

Photo and info by Bob Johnson (8/00)



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