Showing posts with label Cheyenne Wyoming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cheyenne Wyoming. Show all posts

Friday, April 2, 2021

Amtrak Expansion. Cheyenne to Denver, and beyond!?


I have real problems, I'll admit, with the scope of the proposed infrastructure spending proposals that President Biden is looking at, but if they go forward, I really hope we do see rail service restored (and that's what it would be) between Cheyenne and Denver.

The plan proposes to invest $80B in Amtrak.  Yes, $80B.  Most of that will go to repairs, believe it or not, as the Amtrak has never been a favorite of the Republican Party, which in its heard of hearts feels that the quasi public rail line is simply a way of preserving an obsolete mode of transportation at the Government's expense.  But rail has been receiving a lot of attention recently for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that in a now carbon conscious era, it's the greenest mode of transportation taht we have, something the commercial rail lines have been emphasizing.

Indeed, if the American public wasn't afraid of a nuclear power the same way that four year olds are afraid of monsters that live under their beds, it could be greener yet, and there's some talk of now supporting nuclear power among serious informed environmentalists.  A campaign to push that, called the Solutionary Rail, is now active.  We'll deal with that some other time.

Here we're noting that we're hopeful that if this does go through, and as noted we have real reservations about this level of expenditure, that Amtrak does put in a passenger line from Cheyenne to Pueblo.  

A line connecting Ft. Collins to Denver has been a proposal in Colorado for quite a while and has some backing there.  The same line of thought has already included Cheyenne.  This has a lot to do with trying to ease the burgeoning traffic problem this area experiences due to the massive population growth in Colorado.  Wyomingites, I suppose, should therefore approach this with some caution as it would tie us into the Front Range communities in a way that we might not want to be.  Still, it's an interesting idea.

It's one that for some reason I think will fall through, and I also suspect it'll receive no support in Wyoming. Still, it's interesting.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Today In Wyoming's History: November 21. Trains and Depots in the news.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 21:

Trains and depots figure in Wyoming's history for this day.

November 21


1887  The Wyoming Central Railway opened its line between Douglas and Glenrock, thereby extending its rail service to the state line.

1919  Chasing Carlisle. November 21, 1919

The Hole In the Wall Country, November 2019.

On this day in 1919, the newspapers were reporting that Bill Carlisle was headed for a location that was the archtype of destination for regional bands. . . some twenty years prior.

The Hole In the Wall.


After all, where would a Wyoming train robber on the lam go, other than to the same place that Butch and Sundance had?

Scene from the Red Wall Country, November 2019.

Well, it was a romantic notion.  Wyoming in 1919 wasn't the Wyoming of 1899, or even 1909, no matter how much the thought of a wild flight to the Hole In The Wall might have been fancied the imagination of a people for whom that region had been an impenetrable criminal fortress only a couple of decades prior.


In 1919, the territory was still wild in many ways.  Indeed, the first decade of the 20th Century saw an ongoing range war in the form of a cattlemen v. sheepmen killings.  As late as the latter part of the first decade of the 20th Century a criminal escapee simply disappeared forever.



But by the same token, by 1919 the criminal sanctuary no longer was one. There was no more Hole In The Wall Gang.  Most of the former members of that group were dead, in prison, or reformed.  Following the Tipton train robbery by The Wild Bunch, the authorities were no longer willing to tolerate the lack of law enforcement that allowed it to continue to exist and were willing to expend the resources necessary to penetrate it.  Prior to that happening, the badmen dispersed. Some would return, and as late as the 00s, but they weren't hitting trains.





Carlisle was.



Buffalo Creek Canyon, December 2019.

Indeed, part of the appeal of the Carlisle story is that he was already an anachronism, in his own time.  In 1919, the year after the Great War had ended, a war which had featured aircraft and submarines and mass violence on a mass scale, Carlisle was out on his own, in the vast countryside, raiding trains, badly.


People were sort of rooting for him.


Even as they knew, he'd be caught.



1940  Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn were married in Cheyenne.  The wedding took place at the Union Pacific Depot dining room.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyoming, May 17, 2019


The Union Pacific 4014 is one of the twenty five legendary "Big Boy" locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company for the Union Pacific between 1941 and 1944.  They were the largest steam engines ever built.  4014 is one of 4884-1 class engines, that being the first class, the second being the 4884-2 class.  Only eight of the twenty five Big Boys remain and only this one, 4014, built in 1941, is in running condition.


It wasn't always.  Up until this year, none of the Big Boys, retired in 1959, were operational.  4014 in fact had been donated by the Union Pacific to a museum upon its retirement. But the UP reacquired the giant engine a few years ago and rebuilt it, and has returned it to excursion service.  Its first run in that role took place last week on a trip to Utah, and we photographed here in the Union Pacific rail yard in Laramie where it was on a day off before its anticipated return to its home in Cheyenne which will take place today, May 19, 2019. 


The massive articulated train is truly a legend.


The 4014 was built as a coal fired train, with the difficult hilly terrain of the Union Pacific in Wyoming in mind.  The conversion, however, restores to steam service, but as a fuel oil burning engine.  Indeed, that type of conversion was common for steam engines in their later years.


The 4014 is a four cylinder engine that was designed to have a stable speed of up to 80 mph, although it was most efficient at 35 mph.  It was designed for freight service.



The Big Boy was traveling with two other engines in its train, one being the Union Pacific 844, and the other being a diesel engine.  I'm not certain why the 844 was part of the train, but the diesel engine was likely in it in case something broke down.  Nothing did, and the maiden run of the restored locomotive was a success.


The 844 is a Northern type engine built in 1944.  The FEF-3 class engine was one of ten that were built by the American Locomotive Company. While used for everything, the FEF series were designed for high speed passenger operations and were designed to run as fast as 120 mph.


The 844 was in service all the way until 1960. During its final years it was a fast freight locomotive.  844 never left service and after being rebuilt in 1960 it went into excursion service for the Union Pacific.






On its maiden run, the UP had a variety of class late rail cars pulled by the train, each of which is named.


















Monday, April 30, 2012

40 Hommes et 8 Chevals


World War One era French boxcar, at American Legion Post in Cheyenne. This boxcar is of the type in which American troops were hauled in World War One, and examples were presented by the French government to American Legion posts after the war.

Union Pacific Big Boy, Cheyenne Wyoming



Thursday, March 22, 2012

Union Pacific Terminal, Cheyenne Wyoming





Central Avenue, or what  becomes the South Greeley Highway, has an overpass over the substantial Union Pacific yard in Cheyenne.  This modern railroad terminal features a tower, much like an airport tower, which is bisected by Central Avenue, making the UP tower an island in the automobile traffic.