Taking The Long Way To Promontory. Well, the closest active rails can get to Promontory anymore: Ogden, Utah. UP 8850 leads a small, seven-car train through the iconic rocks of Chatsworth and into the curve as it prepares to enter the eastern portal of Tunnel 27 on its journey up the ex-Southern Pacific coast line. The train, which even includes the specially designed "Experience The Union Pacific" tour car three cars from the rear, began its journey west in Council Bluffs, Iowa three days ago and is ultimately bound for Oakland, California. Once there, seven more of the UP's finest business cars will be added for a 14-car train total that will travel east over Donner Pass, through the flats of Nevada and up into the mountains of Utah for Ogden. There the train will join the UP Steam Programs' "Living Legend," UP 844 and "Big Boy" 4014 steam locomotives for the celebration of the century - the 150th Anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad. At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the cars will be added to a massive business car train that will be pulled in double-header fashion by the two mentioned steam locomotives for their trip home to Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The EMD SD (special duty) series are a strong and reliable kind of locomotive which still serve America's rails today. They have proved themselves reliable by clocking in several million miles of freight service over several decades.
