Golden Spike National Historic Site, Utah, USA

(1988)

 Not far from Salt Lake City (regarding distances in the US) is the historic site, where the first transcontinental railway line was completed by inserting a golden spike. The history is well known to all railfans, and we visited this place.

The two locomotives were stored in a a shed in the nearby. In the morning around 10 a.m. an engineer drove the "Jupiter" to its place at the monument site. The "Jupiter" was originally constructed as a woodburner. Nowadays, both locomotives burn oil.

After the "Jupiter" had reached the historic site, the engineer went back to bring the #119 from the shed. In the meantime we admired the perfect beauty of the "Jupiter".


The "#119" now showed up on her way to the historic site. It was placed opposite to the "Jupiter.


The scene was arranged now and reminded of the historic moment, when the transcontinental railrod had been completed. The two original locomotives have not been preserved and were rebuilt according to the old construction sheets and pictures.