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Show B2 Wednesday, February 2, 2005 .Vernal Express. Sid yau (mod? TidMfis ff Uintob Sasifa IKliistoiry By George Long Express Writer For the most part Utah's Uintah County has not been a place where railroading has been one of its major enterprises enterpris-es and Vernal, although it had a railway station, never saw a train. Nevertheless, there was a time that a railroad penetrated the southeastern portion of the county to what is now the ghost towns of Dragon and Watson, and for thirty-five years set some major and almost unbelievable unbe-lievable records. This railroad was the famous narrow gauge Uintah Railway established and built in 1904, which operated oper-ated primarily as a carrier of Gilsonite, a mineral mined mostly in Uintah County. Most of the trackage for this line lay in Colorado, where it had an extremely enormous obstacle that confronted them, which was a place called Baxter Pass in the Bookcliffs mountain moun-tain range. In order to overcome over-come this problem the line had to traverse curves as much as 65 degrees and climb grades as steep as 7.5 percent. Anything over a four percent grade was considered taboo and best left alone. Five percent was just unrealistic. This line had several sever-al miles of five percent grades and five continuous miles of 7.5 percent grades, which was just unheard of for slick track railroad. rail-road. To conquer this gigantic problem the railway company E f ' iP 1 4" ' c The Uintah Railway had the largest and most powerful locomotives of any narrow gauge railroad in the world. Pictured here is one of the famous articulated mallets, No. 51, as it takes on water prior to her steep climb over nearly 8500 foot Baxter Pass, Bookcliffs 1951. Articulated mallet, No.50, prepares to leave the Thimble Rock mine near Rainbow in 1930 pulling seven flatcars full of Gilsonite. This magnificent engine could make the climb over Baxter Pass with more surety and ease with the same load of two smaller locomotives. No. 50 and her sister engine No. 51 made history and were the pride of the Uintah Railway. used special gear driven Shay locomotives which, although slow, were well noted for their power. These engines, along with a short couples 0-6-2T rod tank engines used to pull a passenger car, were the only engines able to be used on Baxter Pass for the first 22 years of its operation due to the sharp curves and steep grades. In 1926 a new specially designed steam locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Pennsylvania and put into service ser-vice for the Uintah Railway. This engine had a wheel arrangement of 2-6-6-2T and weighed 120 tons, making it the largest and most powerful narrow nar-row gauge locomotive in the world. It swiveled in the center cen-ter of its twelve driving wheels which allowed it to traverse the sharp curves on Baxter Pass. It was over 14 feet high, ten feet wide, and nearly 50 feet long. These are certainly liberal lib-eral dimensions for a locomotive locomo-tive that runs on a three foot wide track. The engine proved so successful that two years later another, and nearly iden- OPENING Discounted Cholesterol, Comprehensive Chemistry, and Body Fat Tests $20.00 Cholesterol Screening and Comprehensive Chemistry Profile tests ; $20.00 PSA Prostate Screening $5. 00 Percentage of Body Fat Test (Cash or Check only) The CholesterolIipid profile test will give you your good and bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels. You must fast for at least 12 hours before this test. For men over 45 years of age, the prostate screening is used to help detect prostate cancer. The Comprehensive Chemistry Profile will check for sugar, salts, kidney functions, liver tests, calcium, total proteinalbumin levels. Percentage of Body Fat test gives you your percent of body fat, lean body weight, metabolism, and total body water. Thursday, February 17th Friday, February 18th 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. by appointment Please call 725-2036 No doctor's order necessary. Results will need to be discussed with your family physician. Hours: Monday through Friday 8:00 am. to 8:00 p.m. Saturday 10:00 am. to 2:00 pm. (Hours may be subject to change) CGOSsQG 379 North 500 West Vernal Utah 84078 (435) 781-6634 Laboratory and Radiology provided by Uintah Basin Medical Center tical, locomotive was ordered and soon put into operation. It was heavier by about three or four tons so it had the distinction distinc-tion of being the world's largest larg-est narrow gauge locomotive. Instead of having tenders as most locomotives do, they had side tanks, or, as the railroaders railroad-ers called them, saddle tanks. These saddle tanks were filled with water to be used as needed and which also acted as ballast for added traction on the steep grades. The engines were numbered num-bered 50 and 51 respectively. In 1939 the Uintah Railway closed down and these two special spe-cial locomotives were put up for sale. A rail line in Colorado wanted one of them, but after checking them out, found that their trestles would have to be rebuilt or strengthened con siderably in order to safely hold the weight of the heavy machine. With all of this in mind the company decided it would be too costly to purchase. pur-chase. The locomotives were later both sold to the Sumpter Valley Railroad in Oregon where the grades were much less than those of Baxter Pass. The locomotive's numbers were then changed to 250 and 251. They were also converted to oil burners, the saddle tanks were removed and a tender car was added. For seven years they did their job magnificently and were again sold for a second time, this time to International Railways in Central America. The trackage in Guatemala, like that of Oregon, was nothing noth-ing compared to that of Baxter Pass. The engines did their job, once again, in a superb way but in time, through wear and tear, parts had to be replaced but there were none to be had. As a result by 1962, No. 251 or old CA Mil V V RESTAURANT iO 2015 W. Hwy40 O Verna We will be OPEN Monday Night February 14th for Valentines. Now accepting reservations. 789-0103 O O P o V Q O 3 rQOOOOOOa330CaOQOC33 I w 22 West Main Street, Vernal i J 789-1896 .fc Order a special "Old Tine (andy"M ( Hours: Gift Basket for your iweettieartSI Monday-Friday,10-7 'Silgfc ) Saturday10-5 f Closed Sundays Tm ( mJ C i r h M tfl 1 Illlll Aubrey (Mac) Allen McCarrel 80th Birthday The children and grandchildren of Aubrey (Mac) McCarrel will help him celebrate his f 80th birthday at an open house on Friday, February 4th, 2005, 1 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the 1: Golden Age Center, 155 South 100 West, Vernal, Utah. We cordially invite all his family and friends to join us in wishing him a Happy Birthday. No Gifts, Please! "rmiltllUHIIIHililtlUIr IHIIIII kMl . A 91 YOU WON! BEUEVE THIS All previous photo & negative files from 1 994-1 999 are on CLEARANCE! $50 KR Fill! (no charge for file search) Offer ends February 9, 2005 Booking now for Spring: dp Wkcja"'"' family portraits, p 7lf reunions and more. CaCCeCCy (Bonn Photography 79-0952 790-0955 No. 51, was now being used for parts to keep her sister engine, No. 250, running. This faithful old engine operated for another three or four years when it, too, was taken out of service. After that these two famous engines that had been the largest larg-est narrow gauge locomotives ever built were left derelict and rusting away in far off Central America. Sometime in the early 1970s they were cut up for scrap. The tenders which had been added after they left the Uintah Basin were preserved and sold, as were one of the steam domes which had been rescued and made into a large flower pot by one of the residents resi-dents there. This was indeed a very sad ending to what was no doubt the pride of narrow gauge railroading. In my research of these magnificent mag-nificent engines, I found out that a wealthy railroad buff in Grass Valley, California back in the late 1960's tried to purchase old No. 50 but due to problems with the government in Guatemala and the Customs Agency, he gave up on it. Also members of a group in Baker, Oregon, who are involved in restoring some of the Sumpter Valley Railroad artifacts tried to get one or both of the engines. Unfortunately, the effort proved beyond their ability abil-ity at the time. I've heard that they were able to get the tenders ten-ders and have them at their place of restoration. The group "plan! to duplicate both of these fine locomotives which will mean considerable fund raising rais-ing as well as work crews with facilities to do so. They too realize real-ize just how meaningful these great engines were. It is too bad that something like this couldn't be done at the Cross Road Orchard museum in Grand Junction, Colo, where they have restored the old Whiskey Creek Trestle from the Uintah Railway Line near the Utah-Colorado border, just East of the old ghost town of Dragon. Better still, how great it would be to replicate one of these fantastic fan-tastic engines here. After all, we still have the railway station sta-tion built by Uintah Company nearly 100 years ago. I'm sure a lot of people would volunteer to help on such a project. Perhaps this is just wishful thinking like over 30 years ago when I suggested getting a monument erected at the summit of Baxter Pass to honor those people who endured the elements and did so much in order to help with the progress and welfare of this great Uintah Basin. Anyway it is something to think about. In closing, the credit for the construction of these two of a kind narrow gauge locomotives locomo-tives belongs to the Gilsonite Company of Uintah County for whom the famous Uintah Railway was built for the purpose pur-pose of transporting their unique and rare cargo to market mar-ket in the days before modern highways and means of travel as we know it ever existed. The two locomotives were always referred to as sister engines, but I think they were more like twins. They were, for the most part, identical in size and looks and like most twins, were together for all of their existence. Where one went, the other went also, as they were never parted. Sadly as it may be, they both came to the same end, but there is one thing for sure-they started out as Gilsonite carriers and were built specifically for this purpose. pur-pose. They traversed Baxter Pass, a feat that if looked at today, you would marvel at how a train and her crew could ever accomplish. This was a job they did ever so well. Those of you who haven't been out to this historic pass in the Bookcliffs should take the time and do so. You will be rewarded; just be sure to check out weather conditions and yes, it would be best to take a four wheel drive vehicle. |