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150-Year Celebration of Union Pacific Railroad Comes to Utah

Wikimedia Commons

It was on July 1, 1862 that Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, creating the original Union Pacific Railway Company. Today Union Pacific Railroad is part of a corporation, linking 23  states in the western 2/3 of the country with cars carrying freight including automobiles and fruits and vegetables.

To mark the 150 year celebration, Union Pacific is traveling a steam engine throughout the country. The next stop is Ogden, Utah, for a day-long display and train-town presentation.

"It's the sounds that it makes and the smell," says Roberta Bearverly, train lover and executive director of the Union Station Foundation in Ogden. "Every one gets excited about these visits. I think it's because of the uniqueness of the steam mechanism. How in the world can hot water be used to power such a huge piece of equipment? Just an example of human ingenuity. It's amazing."

The station which serves as a historic museum is hosting the steam locomotive.

Number 844 was the last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific Railroad. You can tour this black beauty, along with the railroad's traveling museum, this Saturday, September 22, in Ogden during the day-long Harvest Moon Celebration.

At 14-years-old, Kerry began working as a reporter for KVEL “The Hot One” in Vernal, Utah. Her radio news interests led her to Logan where she became news director for KBLQ while attending Utah State University. She graduated USU with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and spent the next few years working for Utah Public Radio. Leaving UPR in 1993 she spent the next 14 years as the full time mother of four boys before returning in 2007. Kerry and her husband Boyd reside in Nibley.