Union Pacific Railroad Exhibit
Incorrect Caption printed on the stereoview
UPRR's Don D. Snoddy writes (5/30/2002):
"There is no way that is Cheyenne. ... I don't recognize the image at all. It
certainly doesn't match anything else we have on the Cheyenne Depot and Hotel,
or any of our construction era buildings. Wrong id, even though the caption
on the stereo card says Cheyenne. I agree it's definitely an 1860's image.
It doesn't match any of the descriptions we have of Russell images either. ...
it is not a UP locomotive parked there."
[The mount has some fancy spiral printing on both left and right of the images
which is light and hard to see, but reads on the left "DISCRIPTIVE VIEWS OF
THE AMERICAN CONTINENT" and on the right "CONTINENT STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY". The
verso is light purple with no writing.]
Please
let us know if you recognize this image.
Jim
Wilke, Los Angeles, Calif. writes (11/13/2002 & 11/18/2002):
I can identify the type of locomotive, and a few of the railroads that type
ran on - its an 1872 style Baldwin, with double domes and "old style" wheel
covers, a nice one too, with polished brass wrappers, even on the sandbox.
In the early 1870s Baldwin built woodburning engines of this type for several
western customers: the Wisconsin Central, Oregon & California and Northern Pacific.
Double domed Baldwins on all three railroads were equipped with the same amount
of brasswork, and all numbered in the teens (this engine appears to be No.14).
Similar engines with diamond stacks for coal burning were also sold to the Kansas
Pacific. The Abbott, Downing & Co passenger wagon waiting for passengers
is similar to those used by the North Western Stage & Express Company in the
middle 1870s in the Bismark - Black Hills region, as heavier Concord coaches
were useless in the mud. My hunch is that its the Northern Pacific, but it
could easily be also the Oregon & California or Wisconsin Central. NP engines
were wine color, WC engines dark green, but O&C engines are not documented for
colors. ... The Denver Pacific, which ran
into Cheyenne, also had a few double domed Baldwins, although a photo of one
of them, the "Walter Cheeseman," shows it equipped with a diamond stack.
Rod
Peterson, Detroit, Michigan writes (5/19/2003): What a small world! I saw
a slightly different view of this photo today, at a gift shop in Ravalli,
Montana,
while
on vacation. The
engine was #11 with the name on the side of the cab, although I don't remember
what it was. I don't
think the railroad name was visible on the tender. However, the passenger
cars behind the engine were clearly marked as the "O & C R R". To my knowledge
this was the Oregon & California Railroad. The tinted photo showed the engine
as black with brass boiler & steam bands, but I have no idea if it was colored
correctly.
Kyle Williams Wyatt, Curator of History & Technology, California State Railroad
Museum writes (12/19/2003): I will guess that this is the Oregon & California. The
locomotive (#11, a classic Baldwin 4-4-0) and the coach match equipment styles
used by
the O&C, and the depot looks like ones I've seen in O&C photos. I'd
say the date is early 1870s. The locomotive is probably wine color, with
Russia iron boiler jacket.
Paul Hammond writes (9/7/2004): I recently rediscovered the identity of the
mystery station – the Oregon & California station and eating house
at Albany, Oregon. Three images of the station, matching structural details
the above photo exactly, were published on page 27 in Edwin
D Culp's book, Stations West, the Story of the Oregon Railways (Bonanza
Books, 1972). The structure was built in about 1872, and by 1905 displayed
a large "Overland Ticket Office, Southern Pacific Company Shasta Route" sign
on the roof. I believe the O&C used this structure as a hotel as well
during the period when the O&C end of track was at Albany.
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