Central Pacific Jupiter & Union Pacific 119 At Promontory, UT, 6/8/09

Set To High Quality Taken: 06/08/2009 We headed up to Promontory, UT for the afternoon to checkout where the joining of the transcontinental railroad took place back in 1869. When we showed up, we actually had no idea the engines would be out that day, but it was a welcome suprise. When we showed up we had just missed the renactment that uses the two engines, so we decided to explore or the site while we waited for the next one to take place. The wind you hear is a afternoon thunder storm that rolled in later in the afternoon, and forced the engiens to take shelter back in their shed due to rail and lightning. Some history I learned while there: Juipter was not the selected locamotive to represent the CP on the day the joining would take place. Railroad employees that had not been paid actually re-routed the main engine and it train onto a siding, trying to get their pay (from the offical on it, I don't remember his name). With this, the train could not move, and Jupiters train (that was the front runner for the main train) was made ready to take the place of it. Also, the selected day for the the joining had been placed for May 1, 1869. However, the actual driving of the last spike and the ceromony took place on May 10th. For more details on Promontory, UT and the transcontinental railroad, take a look at the National Park Services' page on it, which can be found at this link: www.nps.gov/gosp/

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