Everlasting Steam

The Last Spikes Everlasting Steam Last Spike Site Reading List Essay	Everlasting Steam: The Fate of "Jupiter" & "119"
GO WEST YOUNG ENGINE During the month of September 1868, at Schenectady Locomotive Works, in the State of New York, four wood burning locomotives, "Jupiter", "Storm", "Whirlwind", and "Leviathan" were built for Central Pacific Railroad. Like all CP locomotives built until 1870, they were dismantled from their frames, loaded onto a ship, and taken around South America's Cape Horn to San Francisco, California. At San Francisco, the engines were loaded onto a barge and towed upriver to Central Pacific headquarters at Sacramento. There, they were reassembled and commissioned into service on March 20, 1869. Less than two months later, "Jupiter" pulled Central Pacific President Leland Stanford's special train to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory to meet Union Pacific's dignitaries for the scheduled May 8, Golden Spike Ceremony. QUITE BY ACCIDENT Stanford did not originally choose "Jupiter" to draw his special train to Promontory. The duty of pulling the Stanford Special first fell to "Antelope". Enroute to Promontory Summit, the Special followed a passenger train, called a regular, carrying sightseers to the "Weddin' of the Rails". As the regular train passed through a large mountain cut still being cleared, workmen did not notice a small green flag flying from the regular's locomotive. The flag indicated another train followed close behind. Immediately after the regular passed, the workmen rolled a huge log down the side of the cut, which came to rest against the rails. Around the corner came Stanford's Special, and "Antelope" struck the log. She wasn't derailed, but was so badly damaged that Stanford's telegrapher wired the nest station to hold the regular train. After the Special limped into the station, Stanford's cars were coupled to the regular's locomotive, "Jupiter", who then took a Special place in history on May 10, 1869. PASSAGES After her glorious moment in 1869, "Jupiter" continued service as a Central Pacific passenger locomotive. In 1885, Central Pacific was absorbed into the Southern Pacific system. The "Jupiter" name was dropped in the 1870s when the locomotive was repainted, and in 1891, "#60" was renumbered "1195". A name change was accompanied by even greater changes. A new boiler was installed, her bonnet stack was replaced with a diamond stack, her sand and steam domes were changed, and even her pilot, or "cow catcher", which had vertical slats, was replaced with one having horizontal slats. Then, in 1893, "1195" was converted into a coal burning locomotive. No longer resembling "Jupiter", "1195" was sold later that same year to the Gila Valley, Globe, and Northern Railroad in Arizona. Being the first locomotive on their railroad, the GVG & N renamed her "#1". There she had a loyal following, and only one more change awaited "Ol' One Spot" as her last duty. What had once been the proud "Jupiter", ran on the Globe until 1909, when, despite efforts of her last engineer to save her, the railroad (now controlled by Southern Pacific) sold their historic locomotive to scrappers. Her final act brought the railroad a scrapper's fee of one thousand dollars. EXACTING PAYMENT During November 1868, Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works of Paterson, New Jersey built Union Pacific locomotives "116", "117", "118", "119", and "120". Seven months later, "119" received the call to pull Union Pacific Vice-President Thomas Durant and his contingent of dignitaries to Promontory Summit. Like Stanford, Durant originally chose a different locomotive to take part in the Golden Spike Ceremony. Enroute to Promontory for the May 8th Ceremony, the Durant Special was forced onto a siding track and stopped at the little town of Piedmont, Wyoming, not far from the Utah border. There to "greet" Durant were over four hundred laid off tie cutters, who had been waiting more that three months to be paid. Durant's coach was immediately chained to the siding, and, after a delay of nearly two days, the men's pay arrived. The delay caused Durant substantial embarrassment, and cost his original locomotive (whose number is unknown) her place in history. MORE PASSAGES While Durant was delayed, the rain swollen Weber River continued to rise. When the Durant Special reached the river at Devil's Gate Bridge, the locomotive's engineer saw the raging water had removed some bridge supports. This left the bridge unsafe for the heavy engine, and the engineer refused to cross. Instead, after assuring Durant that the bridge would support the lighter passenger coaches, the engineer gave each coach a push with his locomotive. The cars of shaking dignitaries coasted across the equally shaking structure. Unfortunately, this action left Durant without a locomotive. A hastily wired message to Ogden requested rescue. Sitting in Ogden were the five Union Pacific locomotives "116" through "120". When the call came, "119" was next to the main line and so took the first UP locomotive's place at the Golden Spike Ceremony. After May 10, 1869, "119" continued service as a freight locomotive. In 1882, she was renumbered "343" and served out her days until scrapped in 1903. Like "Jupiter", "119's" sacrifice brought her railroad a scrapper's fee of one thousand dollars. FOR THE LOVE OF STEAM In 1975, O'Conner Engineering Laboratories of Costa Mesa, California accepted the challenge of reproducing "Jupiter" and "119" as they were at the Golden Spike Ceremony. With no plans or blueprints, engineers and technicians set out to build the historic American Standard 4-4-0 locomotives. Using a locomotive design engineer's handbook from 1870 and micrometer scalings of enlarged 1869 photographs of the two locomotives, work began. A four year "labor of love" ensued, including two years just to make the over 700 drawings. When the locomotives were ready, every dimension was within 1/4 inch of original. It took four trucks to bring the gleaming replicas 800 miles to Promontory Summit, Utah. Here, christened with water from the Atlantic and Pacific, the new "Jupiter" and "119" were commissioned into service on May 10, 1979, the 110th Anniversary of the Golden Spike Ceremony. IRON HORSES OF A DIFFERENT COLOR The color of a steam locomotive? Most people would say they have no color, no dazzle or sparkle; they’re just a flat, dirty black. That image typically comes to mind because the steam locomotives we see in movies and on television are of 1900’s vintage, and were without color. But the locomotives of the 1860’s? Now that is a horse of a different color! The 1860’s were the height of the Victorian Era, which was characterized by elaborate, and often ostentatious workmanship. Locomotives were no exception; they were seen as the company workhorse, showpiece and public relations department all rolled into one. The train coming to town was a major event of that era, and as it rolled out again the townsfolk were left awestruck in its wake. The Jupiter and 119 are arguably our country’s two most renowned, readily recognized locomotives. Each, by a mere stroke of fate, represented their respective companies in the “Golden Spike,” or “Wedding of the Rails” ceremony. Both were immortalized in Andrew J. Russell’s “East Meets West” photograph, plus a number of other photos taken on that day by Russell, Charles Savage, and Alfred Hart. The image of the Jupiter and 119 facing each other across the last spike site has become an image recognized around the world. Would the true colors of the Jupiter and 119 be forever enshrouded in the black and white images of historic photos? With the completion of the replica locomotives in 1979, the Jupiter and 119 burst upon the scene in living color. Ward Kimball, one of the six original Disney animators, was commissioned to head the painting operation. Absent any documentation on the actual colors of the original Jupiter and 119, Kimball chose bright reds and vermillions for eye-catching, popular appeal. Between 1979 and 1993 thousands of visitors came to Golden Spike National Historic site and viewed the replicas of the Jupiter and 119. They watched and often participated in recreations of the last spike ceremony. The locomotives were captured on film and postcards, and featured in newspapers and magazines. Railroad buffs world-wide marveled at the Jupiter and 119. Thus the striking colors chosen by Kimball became the accepted identity for the locomotives.   This comfortable, popular, and familiar scene was shattered by a very simple 3 1/2 line entry: Locomotive. -The new engine Jupiter, fresh from the paint shop, gleaming in blue and crimson with gold appeared on the track this morning. This item appeared in the March 20, 1869 issue of the Sacramento Daily Bee, and then went unnoticed for over a hundred years until brought to light recently by researchers. This revealing, yet vague, bombshell set historian Jim Wilke on a personal quest to research the exact color schemes for the Jupiter and 119. It was a curiosity for Wilke; what shade of blue? Which parts were blue? How did they really appear to the photographers as they composed their black and white photos? Wilke’s quest took him to the Smithsonian and the California and Nevada State Railroad Museums. While Wilke was unable to find definitive information on the color schemes for the Jupiter and 119, some information and color paintings were available on similar locomotives built during the same time period. From Wilke’s research the new color schemes were developed for the Jupiter and 119 and proposed to the National Park Service. The idea of changing the long accepted colors of the replica Jupiter and 119 came as quite a shock to many people. Coincidentally, this proposal came just as the locomotives were scheduled for their first repainting since new. Still, no one had considered a drastic change in color scheme. Although the original colors on the Jupiter and 119 in 1869 cannot be verified exactly or completely, it was ultimately decided that the new color schemes proposed by Wilke would be more historically accurate than the colors the replicas had been painted. The timing of the change of colors for the Jupiter and 119 was extraordinary. May 10, 1994 was the 125th anniversary of the last spike ceremony. This would prove to be the largest event in the history of having the locomotives at the Site. On that anniversary morning the brilliantly painted locomotives rolled out on the tracks transporting 14,000 visitors back in time. Back to what it must have been like on that day, 125 years before; and once again, they left everyone awestruck in their wake. AND NOW, EVERLASTING STEAM Have you ever wished to see, touch, and know more about things from the past? At Golden Spike National Historic Site you can. Here, where the Nation's first Transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 10, 1869, reside exact replicas of the two steam engines that met at the Golden Spike Ceremony. The story of "Jupiter" and "119" is a fascinating, continuing chapter in American and railroading history. Although the great pioneering, steam-driven days of the first Transcontinental Railroad are gone, the legacy of that time lives on at Golden Spike National Historic Site. As well as standing on the very spot where the Railroad was completed, you can also see, touch, and experience, for generations to come, "Jupiter" and "119", live steam representatives of a momentous past.