im looking for info on the union pacific, and the transcontinental route during the 1940's and early '50's. specifically looking for what the rail yards looked like and the causeway across the salt lake. thanks
The true transcontinental railroad in the USA, ocean to ocean over a single railroad, was the Southern Pacific (and its Texas and New Orleans subsidiary) from San Francisco/Los Angeles to New Orleans.
As far as that CP/UP "transcontinental" route of the mid-19th century, I suggest you purchase Signor's Southern Pacific's Salt Lake Division by Signature Press. It has lots of info and photos on the Salt Lake causeway (and its rebuilding) and drawings of the yards in Ogden. And lots of other good stuff.
Mark
The UP didn't have a causeway across the Great Salt Lake, The UP left Ogden running south to Salt Lake City and then either due south to Provo and Los Angeles via Lynndyl or due west to Garfield and then south to Lynndyl and Los Angeles and then ran north from Ogden up to Pocatello.
The SP left Ogden west and crossed the Great Salt Lake on a causeway and the WP left Salt Lake City west through Garfield around the bottom of the Great Salt Lake. The DRGW ran from Ogden south through Salt Lake City to Provo and then east toward Denver.
The UP had a yard at Ogden, the UP&SP had a yard at Ogden, the UP had a yard at Clearfield, the DRGW and UP had yards at Salt Lake City and the UP, DRGW and UTAH had yards at Provo.
Any UP train or traffic going due west to Oakland or San Francisco, was interchanged to the SP at Ogden and the SP (not the UP) hauled it across the causeway.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Ike_409im looking for info on the union pacific, and the transcontinental route during the 1940's and early '50's. specifically looking for what the rail yards looked like and the causeway across the salt lake. thanks
Maps, track arrangement drawings, and extensive photographs of the yards in Ogden are in the book Ogden Rails, by Don Strack, available for purchase from the Union Pacific Historical Society:
http://www.uphs.org/Ogdenrails.htm
dehusman The UP had a yard at Ogden, the UP&SP had a yard at Ogden, the UP had a yard at Clearfield, the DRGW and UP had yards at Salt Lake City and the UP, DRGW and UTAH had yards at Provo.
The Ogden Terminal, where the SP and UP met, was four miles long. It stretched north from where the UP lines left westerly for Salt Lake City and south to Omaha to where the D&RGW's line went west to Salt Lake City (D&RGW had a bit of trackage in Ogden including a small yard), the SP went northwest to cross the Great Salt Lake, and the UP continued north. The Ogden Union Railway and Depot Co., joinly owned by the SP and UP, switched the terminal. The OUR&D had its own employees, but used SP and UP locomotives.
Looking from west to east, the terminal was divided into zones: UP freight yard zone (with some UP-SP trackage to the northwest adjacent to the stock yards), SP freight yard zone, UP-SP freight yard zone, SP freight yard zone, UP-SP freight yard zone, and lastly freight station and passenger terminal zones. The SP shop area was towards the north on the east side of the main tracks, and the UP shops were at the southwest near UP's line to Salt Lake City.
In 1942 the UP opened its Riverdale Yard on the line to Omaha south of the Ogden Terminal and its junction to Salt Lake City. The Pacific Fruit Express moved the ice plant and platform from the Ogden Terminal to the Riverdale Yard in 1955.
If you had a building 125 by 250 feet in size, you could faithfully model the entire Ogden Terminal in HO scale. So, it would be unlikely you could make something convincing in most layout sizes. A third-rate yard, if you're to have a yard at all, is more readily modeled. It all depends on how far you're willing to stretch modelers' license.