authentic stub switches and harp switch stands.
Rebuilding History
In the 1960s the National Park Serv- ice began searching for suitable re- placements for the Jupiter and No. 119 after concluding that both had been scrapped in the early part of the 20th century. Finding no suitable
candi-
ABOVE: The original “Ten Miles of Track Laid in One Day” sign was preserved by the Daugh- ters of Utah Pioneers and later returned to the GSNHS visitor’s center for display. A replica now stands at the original location. LEFT: A replica of the Hewes 1869 Golden Spike is on display in the visitor’s center. The original is on exhibit at Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center in California. Of the four precious metal spikes presented at Promontory Summit in 1869, three are known to survive. Stanford also owns the silver spike from Nevada, while the Museum of the City of New York has in its possession the composite gold-silver-iron spike from Arizona; the gold spike from the San Francisco Newsletter and Advertiser has been lost. A third gold spike made for the Hewes family in 1869 (cast at the same time as the spike given to Stanford, and unknown until 2005) is now in the collection of the California State Railroad Museum.
Great Salt Lake, which bypassed
Promontory entirely. However, the tracks between Corinne and Lucin were not abandoned but left in place as the Promontory Branch until 1942 when they were removed for the war ef- fort. An “un-driving” ceremony was held at the Summit complete with two steam locomotives poised face-to-face and a special “undriven” spike fur- nished by Southern Pacific. By this time the depot, roundhouse, and other railroad buildings that had existed at Promontory were gone. The few re- maining commercial structures, includ- ing the Golden Spike Hotel, were most- ly removed by the 1960s.
Preserving the Legacy
Around 1916 Southern Pacific in- stalled a concrete obelisk monument at Promontory, which seldom saw visitors after the tracks were removed. Writing
about a visit to the last spike site in 1948, author Jack Goodman remarked that the obelisk “somehow seemed the lonesomest monument in all the West.” But the “un-driving” of the Golden Spike sparked a renewed interest in Promontory, and in the 1950s local cit- izens began reenacting the last spike ceremony in front of the obelisk every May 10th. Their efforts, largely orches- trated by Bernice Gibbs Anderson and the Golden Spike Association, led to the site being placed under federal protec- tion in 1957. A decade later the Golden Spike National Historic Site was en- larged by over 2000 acres to include the historic Central Pacific and UP grades east and west of the last spike location, and a new visitor’s center was complet- ed in time for the Golden Spike centen- nial celebration in 1969. By 1979, 1.7 miles of period-appropriate track had been relaid at the site, complete with
dates, and after efforts to repatriate an 1871 Rogers-built 4-4-0 from Peru was unsuccessful, the NPS began making plans to build brand-new replica loco- motives in 1966. In the meantime, for the 1969 centennial a pair of Virginia & Truckee American Standards, the Reno and Genoa, were borrowed and cosmet- ically altered to resemble the Golden Spike locomotives. When they were re- turned to their owners in 1970, NPS borrowed two more ex-V&T 4-4-0s, the Dayton and Inyo, which had been painted to resemble the Jupiter and No. 119 by Union Pacific for its 1969 Golden Spike Centennial Expo train. Both would remain at Promontory un- til 1978. The replicas were constructed over a four-year period by O’Conner Engi- neering Laboratories of Costa Mesa, California, and are accurate to within ¼ of an inch. (For the story of their con- struction, see the May 2011 LINESIDE LEGACY). They embody the look and feel of Victorian-era 4-4-0s, although built with modern materials, with steel re- placing iron and welding replacing riv- ets. There were other compromises: un- like the engines of 1869, they are fitted with air brakes in the interest of safety, and for 11 years they burned waste oil before being converted to use the au- thentic original fuels in 1991, coal in No. 119 and wood in Jupiter. Both are maintained in modern engine house hidden behind a bluff located a half- mile northeast of the site. For many years they were looked after by the fa- ther-son team of Robert and Eric Dow- ty, and today they’re cared for by engi- neers Stephen Sawyer and Ron Wilson, along with fireman Mike Oestreich.
Central Pacific’s Jupiter
In the fall of 1868 Central Pacific purchased four passenger 4-4-0s from the Schenectady Locomotive Works of Schenectady, New York. Numbered 60-63, they were named Jupiter, Storm, Whirlwind, and Leviathan. All were wood burning locomotives with
16″×24″ cylinders, 60″ drivers, and bonnet-type smokestacks; each was lavishly finished with an abundance of brass trim and gold leaf. In September 1868 Jupiter was dismantled down to its frame and shipped in crates around Cape Horn to San Francisco. From there it was barged up the Sacramento River and delivered to the Central Pa- cific. After being reassembled it was
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