6/22/2018

Ogden, Utah to Grand Junction, Colorado

We started out the day by doing our planned visit to the Utah State Railroad Museum, which was only about a 5-minute drive from our hotel in Ogden.

I thought we would go to the museum for a short visit then hit the road for Grand Junction.  I should have known better.  The trouble was that the museum turned out to be way more interesting than I expected, which caused us to stay considerably longer than we had planned.  The Italian Renaissance-styled 1923 train station still cuts quite an impressive swath, as does the large former waiting room with its soaring trussed ceiling.

Photo 5013.  Old Ogden Union Station, home of the Utah State RR Museum

Photo 5027.  The historic Ogden Union Station, which now houses 4 museums,
including the Utah State Railroad Museum.

The railroad museum turned out to be excellent … in my opinion it is in the same league as the great California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, the granddaddy of them all, albeit on a smaller scale.  There were great dioramas, art works, a caboose mockup, all superbly presented.  The rail museum covers from the First Transcontinental Railroad (from Omaha to Sacramento, completed in 1869) to about the 1960s.  The story of the building of the First Continental Railroad is a great one … about the construction in the middle of nowhere: how it went very fast in the plains and very very slowly with the difficulties in the Sierras, such as drilling the holes for blasting powder with hammers and chisels.  No power tools involved.  Not to mention all the graft and corruption, and political intrigue.

Photo 5064.  Dioramas, mockups, old photos, all beautifully presented

There were meticulously constructed models of various scenes, including one of a section of rail through the High Sierras, another of the early town of Ogden, and another of the infamous timber Dale Creek Bridge that was so tall (tallest on the transcontinental railroad) that it swayed terribly in the wind, which scared passengers half to death when crossing it, even when observing the speed limit of 4 mph.  Contemporary accounts of passengers in the 1800s make for fascinating reading.  Stephen Ambrose talks about all this in his excellent book about the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad “Nothing Like It in the World”.

Photo 5111.  Diorama model of the Dale Creek Bridge near Sherman Summit in Wyoming

Upstairs was the Browning Firearms Museum which had an impressive display of historic Browning guns explained to us by an extremely enthusiastic 2^nd Amendment advocate.  Our main interest was the B.A.R. (Browning Automatic Rifle) that Cheryl’s dad Smitty and his lifelong Army buddy Frank Ruth were trained for during World War II.  Being assigned as a “BAR Man” was as good as a death sentence because the enemy always targeted the carriers of these automatic rifles due to their much greater firepower than ordinary infantry rifles.  Both Smitty and Frank were fortunately reassigned as Medics and survived the war.

Photo 5114.  The B.A.R., Browning Automatic Rifle

And there was yet another museum in the Union Station: the Browning-Kimball Classic Car Museum: a small but impressive collection of vintage cars in pristine condition, mostly from the 1920s and 1930s, all in running condition.  Here’s an example:

Photo 5124.  1931 Lincoln Model 202A V-8, 120 HP, top speed 90-100 mph, price: $4,600

And of course, the piece de resistance was the collection of locomotives outside.  Anyone with any appreciation for big machinery will love these monsters that were among the largest ever made.

Photo 5155.  Collection of vintage locomotives at the Utah State Railroad Museum

Photo 5178.  Union Pacific Steam Locomotive #833.  Built: 1939.  Top speed: 110 mph.  Retired: 1957.

Here are some other scenes we encountered between Salt Lake City and Grand Junction, Colorado.  The scenery is ever-changing, mountainous, but quite unlike the alpine scenery we are accustomed to in the Northwest … there is an unending variety of rock forms, passes and canyons with lots of scenic drama.

Photo 5237.  US-6 between Spanish Junction & Price Utah: the old road and railroad are low, and the new road is high.

Photo 5300.  Rock strata in a vertical highway cut near Price, Utah

Next: over the Colorado Continental Divide.