Engines met head to head ...
From: kae.soost@sibleymedical.org
The transcontinental railroad met head to head and then what? Did one of them back up? Which one?
—Kae Soost
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 2:39 PM
Thursday, May 18, 2006
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6 Comments:
Details of return trip from Promontory celebration? Was there a wye or turntable?
From: kylewyatt@aol.com
The railroads met, connected to each other, and then interchanged traffic (including some cars). About 7 months later the interchange point was moved east from Promontory to Ogden, so in that sense the Union Pacific backed up some.
—Kyle
The Golden Spike Cultural Landscape Report includes a Historic Base Map, May 10, 1869, Promontory Summit that shows a Union Pacific wye, so the engines or optionally the whole trains would have been turned around for the return trips with the dignitaries.
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
My recollection from accounts is that the wye was built by the Union Pacific after the ceremony on May 10. And that it was not available to the Central Pacific trains, the UP being rather jeolous and exclusive about use of thier trackage. The Central Pacific locomotive pulling the train had to back for many miles from Promontory until reaching the CP's own turning facilities. As for the UP, the wye did not have a long enough tail track to turn a whole train, nor was there any real reason to do so. The locomotive could be turned and couple onto the rear of the train, making it the new front.
—Kyle
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Slight correction – the Cultural Landscape Report provides evidence that the Union Pacific wye was built during the night of May 9 and completed on the morning of May 10 before the ceremony.
—Kyle
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
More info on turning locomotives –
Here is a transcription from the Sacramento Bee reporter J. O'Leary, one of the proprietors of the Bee, datelined May 10 at Promontory, in the morning before the ceremony, published in Sacramento Thursday, May 13.
"Turn Table.
There is no turn table here at present, and the locomotives of the C.P.R.R. have to back with their trains a distance of seventy miles ere they can turn, which, with a water car before it as it goes, is both awkward and unsafe. The U.P.R. is similarly situated. But this will soon be remedied, as the former Company will commence immediately the construction of a turn table, and the latter broke ground yesterday (Sunday) for a Y track, which answers the same purpose."
This confirms that the UP started construction of the wye ("Y") on Sunday, May 9, while the CP started construction of their turntable shortly after the ceremony. It also gives the distance the CP had to back up before the completion of the turntable allowed turning of the locomotive.
—Kyle
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