Looking east toward WY on I-80.
Elizabeth, Bob and Chris plus more on their muddy hill top.
Looking west toward Ogden.
West bound freight 6016.
My hilltop had a bench and
a covered standing area. The narrow, 16-mile gorge of Echo
Canyon impressed pioneers with its particular echo. The canyon
also includes stone breastworks built in 1857 to guard against
an invasion by federal troops to suppress a rumored Mormon
rebellion.
Our first look at these grand old steamers and their entourage.
Big Boy 4014 and 844.
At 9:22 AM, the show was over.
As we all came down from
our muddy slopes gathering at the visitor center, the
restrooms and hot coffee were in big demand. Chris and
Elizabeth were in a hurry to get back to the city and Bob was
going to take the rental car back to the airport so I decided
to ride back with Bob. After Bob and I got on the interstate,
he decided we should chase the Big Boy so we exited and queued
up at the end of the entourage joining on a small country
road. Bumper to bumper traffic was the order of the day. As we
proceeded, we could see crowds dispersing far from their
lookouts and then the crowds were not yet dispersed yet, so we
knew that we were getting closer to Big Boy.
A local mine or pit.
And then we spotted our prize on the tracks above us.
As we crept along the police were yelling at motorists "No
Parking - Keep moving." Our transmission was in Drive (D) not
(P) so Bob and I both shouted a few words back.
Big Boy.
Big Boy was heading to
Ogden taking us farther away from the city so we found a road
leading away from the crowd and headed to SLC. Once in the
land of buildings, we spotted a Burger King for our lunch. We
relaxed as we ate lunch in their cool dining room. Then it was
off to the airport which had their rental return located on
the ground floor of the parking garage. I've been to several
airports with similar operations which I think is a good plan.
Drop your car off and walk over to terminal or just take an
escalator up to the waiting area. LAX should use the same
operation thereby eliminate those gas burning shuttle buses of
the rental car companies clogging the terminal roads and
neighborhood streets.
After Bob received his
release papers we walked outside to the station for TRAX Green
Line 704. This line runs from the airport east to downtown,
then past Temple Square, past City Center before heading for
West Valley Center. A "U" is the lay of the route. The airport
station shows good planing by past officials. Airports, public
light rail and car rentals make a trio good for travelers and
visitors. Many cities now have light rail between downtown and
their airport as Denver now has between its new airport and
city. And it would be great if LAX such a public
transportation system. Unfortunately we have no such system
now or any planned in the near future or far distance future.
What we will have is a hodgepodge of different modes of
transportation that would make Rube Goldberg proud. History
tells the story of how we arrived at this current
situation. Planning for the new terminal in Los Angeles
was during in 1950s. Autos were kings and we were building
freeways everywhere for them. At the same time the city got
rid of the Red Line cars that ran over much of Southern
California plus the city street cars. Everybody would travel
in their cars was the thinking, so the rail system was sold
for scrap. Also the taxi owners were looking for a monopoly on
public transportation to and from the airport. The dream of a
one seat ride from the airport to downtown or to the West
Side, two major destinations will continue to be a dream for
ages to come. Bob and Elizabeth flew in to town, rented a car
at the airport, drop it back at the airport then took the
Green Line back to hotel and then on Sunday take the Green
Line to the airport. The for the rest of their stay they will
use public transportation and convention buses.
Bob and I paid the fare
using our UTA Five Day Pass and boarded heading east to North
Temple Bridge station to ride the FrontRunner. As we both were
trying accumulate as many rail miles as possible and had the
time this afternoon, we decided to ride the FrontRunner to
Provo and back. Leaving the Green Line at North Temple, we
went downstairs to the FrontRunner platform. This fare would
be covered with the Five Day Pass which is a Tap on -Tap off
system. The Metro in the Los Angeles area uses a Tap on system
also but doesn't require a Tap off action which I think is
more user friendly.
The FrontRunner runs from Ogden to Provo
taking about two hours with SLC midpoint so from there is
about one hour to either end. Today we are going south to
Provo and tomorrow we will be going north to Ogden there by
covering the entire route.
North Temple Station looking north.
North Temple platform with the Green Line bride in background.
We boarded at 2:33 pm for
Provo Central and had a nice trip looking at the scenery and
talking about the convention and the Golden Spike celebration.
Upon arriving at Provo at 3:42 pm we stayed in our car for the
five minute turnaround before returning.
After arriving at North
Temple at 5:01 pm, we went up to the Green Line platform and
took the next car back to Arena station and then a short walk
back to our hotels.
After dinner I was able to catch the last half
Rich Luckin's video on the Transcontinental Railroad which was
very good. He has had good presentations at past NRHS
conventions and that finished the day for me.
Thanks for
reading.
