Ames Monument, Albany County Wyoming

This monument, Ames Monument, is one of the oddest in Wyoming.  It's so odd that I wasn't quite sure whether to post it here, reflecting the railroad nature of the theme of the monument, and the origin of its construction, or whether to place it on Some Gave All, our blog that's dedicated generally to monuments.  Or maybe even someplace else.

Ames Monument is a pyramid, yes a pyramid, in Albany County Wyoming that was built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company.   It's dedicated to Oakes and Oliver Ames, to figures associated with the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, and not really in a terrible happy way.

Oakes Ames was a Congressman who was hugely influential in getting the transcontinental line constructed.  His brother Oliver became president of the Union Pacific Railroad.  That's fine, of course, but Oakes' efforts were associated with claims of fraud and Oakes was censured in Congress due to his actions in connection with the railroad's construction 

After Oakes died in 1873, and after the controversy had died down a bit, the Union Pacific independently took action to memorialize the brothers, who had been successful in getting the transcontinental line built where others had failed. So, this was built as a privately funded memorial near a high altitude town in sparsely populated Wyoming  between Cheyenne and Laramie.

The town has since passed away, with Buford Wyoming being the nearest town of any kind, and it's hardly a town, although a rural subdivision of sorts has somewhat sprung up generally in the area.  

And the Union Pacific moved its line several miles, so the railroad no longer runs by here.  Indeed, nothing really runs by here, and the Union Pacific itself donated the odd, and truly massive, monument to the State of Wyoming, which administered it as a rarely visited remote monument.

The scale of the monument is difficult to appreciate without seeing it.  It's huge.  Images of both brothers are on the monument, but as I didn't appreciate that at the time, I only photographed one of them.  The noses of both brothers have fallen off their images, or perhaps been shot off, giving perhaps one final insult to their memorial.

Wyoming's Interstate 80 is just a few miles away, but few turn off to visit this monument built in 1880.  Indeed, I've known of its existence for years and years, but just stopped off to see it for the first time myself the other day.

Some Gave All: Tie Hack Memorial, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming

Some Gave All: Tie Hack Memorial, Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming

This memorial to tie hacks is located about twelve miles north of Dubois Wyoming along the state highway. The scenery nearby is quite spectacular. The memorial commemorates the men whose labor provided ties for the construction of the Chicago and Northwestern.

Union Station, Denver Colorado

Union Station as viewed from in front of Denver's Oxford Hotel.

 

This is Denver's Union Station.  This large railroad station was built in 1914 and was called Union Station as a predecessor station connected  the Union Pacific, the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the Denver, South Park & Pacific, and the Colorado Central.  This 1914 terminal connected the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe, the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy, the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific, the Colorado & Southern, the Union Pacific, and the Denver & Rio Grande Western.  The new 1914 station incorporated part of the previous 1881 depot.  Today the station serves Amtrak and Denver's local RTD area commuter rail.

Construction is ongoing at the terminal as RTD is expanding and a substantial hotel is being added to the terminal.

I recently was in downtown Denver and had the opportunity to take some additional photographs of the now rebuilt station.  It's pretty impressive.

 

Quite impressive and very well done.

Lex Anteinternet: What Are You Reading?

Over on our most active blog, Lex Anteinternet: What are you reading?:

What are you reading?

A new trailing thread, dedicated to what we're currently reading.

And. . . we hope. . . with participation from you.

What are you reading right  now? Add it down in the commentary section
__________________________________________________________________________________

June 21, 2016

Give Me Eighty Men

I'm presently reading Give Me Eighty Men by Shannon Smith. It's a history of the Fetterman Fight, and a history of the history of the Fetterman Fight. I'll review it when I'm done, but I'll note that the favorable mention of the book by the authors of The Heart of All That Is caused me to pick it up, even though I'd been inclined to previously avoid it.

So far, I'm enjoying it, and its certainly raising a lot questions in my mind about the Fetterman battle, although I'm reserving my judgment on various things so far.

Stop over and let us know what you're reading!

That thread:  What Are You Reading?

Fantasy worlds and rail transportation. . . limiting conveyance by rail.

Of our various blogs, this one has been, by far, the least likely to see a commentary post.  Indeed, this appears to be the very first one.  But as this one involves rail transportation, I'm going to post it here.

Readers of the blog where I typically post commentary, Lex Anteinternet, know that I've posted a lot of comments on the hard times in the petroleum and coal industries, particularly in Wyoming.  As part of those, I've categorically rejected the popular thesis in Wyoming that the Federal government is engaged in a "war" on the energy industry, or that there's some gigantic conspiracy to do the energy industries in.  In this post, however, I will comment on a type of "not in my backyard" effort that's really shortsighted, and which give credence to those who feel ignored and oppressed in this area.

Recently there was a big derailment in Mosier, Oregon. That occurrence has lead to an effort, centered in the Pacific Northwest but focused nationally, to ban the transportation of petroleum oil by rail.

Sometimes, things go wrong.  Derailed train, Minnesota, 1986.

That's just flat out absurd.

I guess its obvious that I'm a railroad fan, why else, after all, would a person have a blog dedicated to railroad features, so perhaps I'm partisan.  But campaigns of this type strike me as very ill informed in some ways. The concept seems to be that, because all of the cars are on a single train, a train purposes a unique danger that other  means of transportation do not.  That's simply not correct.  The other means are truck and pipeline.  The hundreds of trucks that replace a single train pose a danger as well, and arguably a much greater one as the risk would have be assessed for each single truck, not just one as if it were a train.  Pipelines are probably safer, although pipeline spills do occur, and the are basically permanent. Rail lines have other uses for other types of trains.

I suspect that much of this movement doesn't even directly relate to safety, but rather is part of an environmental movement on the Pacific Coast that has been pretty successful in shutting down the loading of coal by sea.  Given the current economics of coal, I'm not nearly as convinced, however, that this has been that detrimental to coal.  It's the low price and declining use that has been.  But I suspect there's a poorly thought out concept that if the shipping of oil by rail is stopped, people quit using it.

Not hardly.

This view, I'd note, is supported by some comments from a Pacific Coast environmental activists, who is quoted as saying in a newspaper as follows:

On the evening of June 6, more than a hundred climate activists met at the First Unitarian Church in downtown Portland to discuss their response to the oil train derailment in the Columbia River Gorge three days earlier, said 350PDX director Adriana Voss-Andreae. 

“The call for a temporary moratorium on oil trains is a call for a shred of decency for the Mosier community, but it does nothing to meet the magnitude of the problem,” she said. “If the government won’t stop the bomb trains, then we must do so ourselves. There will be a mass direct action in the coming two weeks. We encourage all to join.”

Climate activists claiming its a "bomb train"?  Well, I'm skeptical. Either they simply oppose the shipping of all fossil fuels by any means, or their activism is unfocused.

Well, whatever a person might think about climate change, pretending that preventing shipping by rail is going to have some impact on the use of fossil fuels is just fooling yourself.  And, ironically, trains are by far the most efficient, and hence the most "green", of any means of transportation we have.  Putting the same oil on the road in trucks is at least as dangerous and a lot dirtier.  And that's probably what would happen if the oil wasn't shipped by rail.

Started thinking about the new Denver RTD A Line. . . Accidental?

Denver RTD University of Colorado A Line

 Escalator at the Denver International Airport to the terminal.

 Union Station, downtown Denver.

The Denver RTD University of Colorado A Line has started operating, and provides passenger service from the airport to downtown Denver.  The tickets cost only $9.00 and the run last 35 minutes, even though it makes several stops in route.  It is, simply, great.

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming And The Railroad

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming And The Railroad: The month of May is important for railroad historians in Wyoming. Tomorrow, marks the anniversary, May 9, 1868,  of the tracks for the Unio...

Blog Mirror: Union Pacific Triva

Union Pacific Railroad Trivia.

In Memorium

My mother.  April 23, 1925-April 9, 2016.

As a young woman, in the 1940s, my mother worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Caboose on display, Thermopolis Wyoming.

This is a Burlington Northern caboose on display as the Thermopolis Historical Museum.

Frankly, I don't know what to think of a display like this.  The caboose is no doubt relevant to the history of Thermopolis, but it's stuffed in a little yard that's jam backed with all sorts of old stuff of all types.  All of which is no doubt relevant to the history of the town, but with a display so packed, the appearance is not attractive and the message doesn't come through.

Burlington Northern Station, Thermopolis Wyoming

The former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy station in Thermopolis, which now belongs to the Burlington Northern.  I don't know the age of this station, but as all BN stations were built basically to a set plan, chances are that almost all of these that have this appearance were built at the same time.

While this is the first time a Thermopolis railroad feature has been featured here, the photo that appears at the top of this blog depicts Thermopolis in earlier times.

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: Steam Hammer

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: Steam Hammer: Steam hammer in railyard facility.  Note the lack of hardhats and the old style soft caps that were so prevalent prior to the baseball ca...

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming the Railroad and What If

Wyoming Fact and Fiction: Wyoming the Railroad and What If: The transcontinental railroad was a brainchild of Eastern businessmen and politicians in the 1830s. It took a while, about two decades befo...

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: Hauling timber on the Governmen...

Lex Anteinternet: Mid Week at Work: Hauling timber on the Governmen...

Lex Anteinternet: Railhead: The Denver City Cable Rail Way Buidling,...

Lex Anteinternet: Railhead: The Denver City Cable Rail Way Buidling,...: We recently posted this item on our blog about railroads and railroad structures: The Denver City Cable Rail Way Building, Denver Colorado...

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: "At the Hejaz railroad near Baṭn...

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: "At the Hejaz railroad near Baṭn...

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: "At the Hejaz railroad near Baṭn...

Lex Anteinternet: The Big Picture: "At the Hejaz railroad near Baṭn...

Grand Central Terminal, New York City.

The Denver City Cable Rail Way Buidling, Denver Colorado.

This is a birdseye view of the Denver City Cable Rail Way Building in downtown Denver Colorado.  The 1889 vintage building now houses a restaurant and businesses.  This particular building originally housed the power generation system for the cable railway and a maintenance facility.

Some Gave All: James Bridger's Ferry (Orin Junction Railroad Bridge).

We recently posted this item on our monuments blog on James Bridger's Ferry.

We repost this item here, due to the last photograph in this set, which demonstrates how locations that were fords, become later crossings for railroads and highways.  Quite a tribute to instinctive engineering, being followed as it is sometimes by actual engineering.

This is one of Wyoming's many roadside monuments that's not longer really road side.

This monument is on the old highway that ran from Orin Junction to Wheatland.  When the Interstate was built, Orin Junction was bypassed and for that matter, the Interstate zips through, not into, Wheatland.  Many such monuments exist, a few of which are now completely marooned.  This one commemorates Jim Bridger's ferry across the North Platte River, which was placed in 1864.

A Burlington Norther Railroad Bridge, which itself isn't youthful, very near where the ferry once was.