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Ogden Rails A History of railroading in Utah 1869 to today by Don Strack SC
Ogden Rails A History of Railroads in Ogden Utah from 1869 to Today by Don Strack
Soft Cover
Copyright 1997
96 pages FOLDOUT MAP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 4
1. Union Pacific Rails Come to Ogden5
2. Utah Central Railroad 11
3. Utah Northern 15
4. Oregon Short Line and Utah Northern 17
5. Union Pacific in this Century 19
6. Ogden Union Railway & Depot Company 31
7. Central Pacific and Southern Pacific 45
8. Denver & Rio Grande Western 56
9. Ogden's Rail served Industries 61
10. Electric and Interurban Railroads 71
11. Utah State Railroad Museum at Ogden Union Station 87
Bibliography 89
Index 93
0gden, Utah, has been known for many years as the "Crossroads of the West." As one looks at a map of the western United States, the reason is obvious - especially if it's a railroad map that pre-dates today's publicly-funded interstate highway system. The construction of railways through Ogden made it a geographical crossroads, and it remained so right through most of the 20th Century up until merger mania began to sweep the nation's western railroads. With the merger of Union Pacific Railroad and Western Pacific Railroad in 1982, UP's connection to the San Francisco Bay area was no longer Southern Pacific at Ogden, but instead, SP's much smaller competitor, Western Pacific, through Salt Lake City. With the merger, the traffic patterns of rail cars through the Ogden rail yards changed forever. The number of trains moving through Ogden fell dramatically when Southern Pacific began diverting many more cars to its own east-west route through the Southwest and Texas. Still more changes came with the 1988 merger of Southern Pacific and Rio Grande. Finally, the September 1996 merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific blurred Ogden operations even further.
From the day the first rails entered Ogden in 1869, railroads have played an important and inseparable part in the city's economy and its sense of who it was. Before the improved highway system came during the late 1940s and early 1950s, railroads and Ogden rode the economic roller coaster together - when the nation's railroads hit rocky ground, so did the city. But even with the highways and their never-ending truck, bus, and private auto competition, nearly everyone in Ogden either worked for the railroad, or knew someone who did. Working for the railroad meant that you had an important job, that you made good wages, and that you were contributing your part. Boys dreamed of being a railroad engineer. During much of the Twentieth Century, railroads were an everyday part of life. Before World War II, many people in Ogden didn't own a car, or owned only one car, and rode the streetcars downtown, or rode the electric trains of the Bamberger to Salt Lake, or the Utah Idaho Central to Logan. When the family traveled, it went by train to visit relatives in Seattle, or California, or somewhere in the Midwest. "Travel By Train." "Workin' On The Railroad." These two phrases summarize what many local residents thought of railroads, and what many residents today remember of railroads. This, then, is the story of railroads and railroading in and around Ogden, Utah.
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