tions. On June 29, 2012, I found the op- portunity for a bit of classic railroad photography as I drove west from Om- aha, Nebraska, to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Taking the U.S. 30 (the old Lincoln Highway) out of Omaha, I caught 844 as it returned home to Cheyenne after a week of display at the College World Series. I left I-80 and followed this con- crete ribbon of highway that parallels the UP main line much of the way to Cheyenne.


A westward plan


On Friday morning, June 29, I went to Elkhorn, Nebraska, on the western edge of Omaha and waited for the west- bound 4-8-4. Elkhorn is a small pic- turesque town of around 6,400 people situated on a hill above the river for which it is named. The Elkhorn and Platte have their confluence nearby. It was along this area of the Elkhorn River in 1855 that a young 28 year-old surveyor, Grenville Dodge, and his new bride began to work a farm he had claimed two years earlier. Dodge had just explored the Platte River across Nebraska all the way to the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming. He returned home convinced that one day this area would be the ultimate route of the transcontinental railroad from Omaha. Dodge might have remained a farmer in Nebraska or Iowa had it not been for a meeting with the future president. When Lincoln visited the Missouri Riv- er town of Council Bluffs in 1859 while campaigning for office, a friend intro- duced him to Dodge on the porch of the Pacific House hotel. The friend told Lincoln of the young surveyor’s exten- sive knowledge of the wilderness west of Omaha. Lincoln and Dodge talked at length about the Platte River Valley and the condition of the trails along the


30 NOVEMBER 2012 • RAILFAN.COM


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