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Show SALT FLAT NEWS, MARCH, 1972 9 nm by Wallace A. Clay Promontory Hill between Blue Creek and Rozel, and Kelton Hill between Kelton and Matlin, were' the only two hills on the Salt Lake Division that required helper engines, or hogs as they were generally called. The hogs were used to get regular traffic over those two humps and keep it rolling on schedule between Ogden, Utah, and Montello, Nevada, between the years 1870 and 1900. Of those two hills, Prompntory was the toughest, so two heavy duty hogs worked both ways from Promontory Summit, where the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific met in 1869. Although extensive transfer yards and coal sheds had already been established there. Promon- tory Station was still the driest station on the whole division; however, by using the water tanks at Blue Creek, the water problem was managed quite well There was a water tank in the Promontory yards just for emergency use, since all the water in it had first to be pumped by a stream pumping plant from the Bear River at Corinne into water cars. These cars were hauled up Promontory Hill, where the water was transferred to the water tank by still another pumping plant. . Those hogs were at different times of different manufacture, but this writer remembers best two Baldwins with straight stacks that worked the hill between 1888 and 1893 when traffic was heavy both ways. On a single run a hog would couple od-t- o an eastbound freight at Rozel after both engines had filled with water, and stay coupled clear up and over Promontory Hill down the east side to Bjue Creek, where it would then uncouple and get turned around on the big turntable east of the water tank. During this period both hogs were equipped with Westinghouse automatic dr brakes and certain valves could be set so that the engineer of the road engine could handle the air for the whole train, white the air pump on the hog just supplied extra air pressure to the engineer of the road engine. In going down east Promontory Hill, the quadrants of both locomotives could be notched well up to center, which gave extra braking power through back air pressure in the steam cylinders. The hog at Blue Creek would take on water and wait for the next westbound train that needed help up the hill, or it would couple onto a half dozen cars from the back storage sidetrack at Blue Creek, and shuttle them up to the storage yards at Promontory. Sometimes while helping a westbound, the hog might uncouple on the almost level track just before reaching Promontory Station and go on ahead into the old Y on the south side of the track. After letting the train go past into Promontory, it would leave the MY headed in the direction desired and coal up" in the Promontory yards. Sometimes a hog would just back down east Promontory Hill to shuttle up a short stringof loads from the Blue Creek storage siding to the Promontory storage yards, if there was time to do this between regular trains. well-suppli- 4-8- -0 ed Between 1870 and 1890 wasa period of improvement in train braking systems, progressing from hand braking to straight air braking to automatic air braking, with often a combination of hand and air brakes on the same train. In the very early days of rail- roading, from 1840 to 1865, hand brakes were the only type used, ami only shortly before the driving of the Golden Spike did young Westinghouse invent straight air braking." Going down a steep, winding hill like east Promontory in the 1870s, an engineer could control only about fifteen loaded freight cars efficiently. Sometimes the air would be cut near the middle of the train, so the engineer would front control the brakes on-thhalf of the tftin, white the two brakemen would be assigned to setting the hand brakes on the rear half of the train. This dual control was not always well synchronized, and on occasions it caused stresses between the locomotive and the caboose that may have accounted for the several mysterious wrecks between Promontory and Kolmar that d between 1877 and 1890. In the early days of link and e oc-cute- . 2nd of a Series Bom in 1884 in a telegrapher's shack on the last link of the first transcontinental railroad, Wallace Clay grew up with the railroad. In the second of a series recounting times eighty years past. Clay describes the workhorse steam engines, or hogs once used to haul freight over the difficult terrain of Promontory Summit With die completion of the Lucin cut-of-f across the Great Salt Lake, die Promontory station ually phased out, until today only a visitor's center and a few feet of narrow gauge track remain in evidence of die Golden Spike Era. break a link and cut the air line, which rarely happened. Like all heavy duty hogs, those had Promontory twelve-wheelesmall drivers" comparatively and large diameter cylinders, which slowed their top speed but gave them great pulling power. They were built so that their steam and water pipes would not freeze up even when standing idle in zero weather for some time. When the Ogden-Lud- n cutoff across Great Salt Lake was put into operation in 1904 and became the main line, the old line over Promontory Hill became a biweekly branch line between pin coupling and dead drawheads, there was not much available slack for getting a cold train started.' In order to squeeze the "box oil" from between the brasses and the wheel journals, a road engine might have to back into the train and jerk ahead a number of times before getting a whole train of or thirty cars twenty-fiv- e NEWS rs lim- bered up and moving ahead. Later, when all cars had spring draw-head- s, this cold starting was easiwhen a powerful but dowbut er, er Promontory hog coupled on ahead of the road engine, then that train started moving at the first pull that is, if it didnt photo by R. Maruiai Corinne and Kelton only, and hogs on the hill were needed no longer. Whatever type of helpers were in operation at that time were transferred to other runs unknown to this writer, and the Golden Spike Era came to an end. During the 1890s, the name Central Pacific had been changed to Southern Pacific System, and the 1869 terminal at Promontory Station had been transferred to Ogden, Utah, and but for history and a monument and viators center on the spot, old Promontory Station has completely disappeared from the free of the earth. 1971 Chrysler Plymouth FACTORY BUY BACKS FACTORY WARRANTY SOME WITH AIR CONDITIONING AND VINYL ROOFS SAVE HOOT! EXAMPLE 1971 FURY III 72 NEW CAR AIR CONDITIONING POWER STEERING POWER BRAKES AUTO TRANSMISSION RADIO HEATER TRADE-IN- S FORCE USED CAR CLEARANCE OVER 95 TO CHOOSE FROM CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH INC. Used Car Center 1100 SOUTH MAIN M II i I i II M I I H I I 328-493-4 . |