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IV. Stations on the Promontory Route
The construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, as with any railroad, includes points of commerce and points of maintenance along its path. A railroad is always constructed from an economic point of view, meaning it includes places along its route where commerce is conducted and, often, where resources are extracted. To maintain a railroad, there is a need to develop facilities for conduct of business including freight and passenger depots, and for maintenance of the line including regularly spaced places from which maintenance crews can work on the railroad, where locomotives can obtain fuel and water, and where rolling stock (locomotives and cars} can be repaired and maintained. While most stations along the Promontory Route included the option to serve passengers, this was one of the primary purposes of only a small number including Ogden, Corinne, Promontory, Kelton, and Terrace. They were the largest stations on the line and all included depots. These stations also maintained shop facilities for repair and maintenance of rolling stock, included either roundhouses or engine houses, and housed maintenance crews. Between these larger stations, section stations served as a base for track and roadbed maintenance activities. These were often remote places, sometimes only including a section station building, a hand car shed, a bunkhouse, and sometimes a cook house for crew. In the first three decades of operation of the line, these were the stations which employed, almost exclusively, Chinese worker crews overseen by a Euro-American foreman. A few also included water tank facilities where locomotives could stop to refill. Important section stations on the Promontory Route included Bonneville, Balfour, Kolmar, Rozel, Lake, Monument, Seco, Watercress, Bovine and Lucin.
Many other stations existed for more specific purposes. For instance, Blue Creek, Ombey and Gartney served strategic operational purposes; Kosmo and the two gravel pit stations were primarily associated with resource extraction; and Stokes, Rochefort, Dathol, Kolmar, Promontory, and Kosmo served agricultural transport needs, primarily sugar beets and wheat. Many small stations, essentially track sidings with no facilities, were established from time to time, for the convenience of local ranchers. Cattle and sheep were often transported on and off the range from many stations, especially in western Box Elder County, while livestock feed was imported, as needed, especially during the winter months. In all, there were 53 stations on this line, existing over the period of 1869 to 1942. In 1869, 16 stations existed. At the height of operations, in 1903, just prior to establishment of the Lucin Cutoff, there were 42 active stations. Five years later, that number had dwindled to 30. Dathol was the last station established, in 1916. The largest number abandoned in the shortest time was 17, occurring between 1904 and 1909. A third of those were lost due to the 1904 suspension of service on the 30-mile-long section between Ogden and Corinne Junction. After 1904 permanent personnel were removed from most of the stations that remained, and those stations were relegated for use on an as needed basis. Even before the final abandonment in 1942 facilities were removed from many stations and siding tracks or portions of them, pulled up for use elsewhere on the line. This chapter provides detail about each named stop to exist on the Transcontinental Railroad. From Ogden on the east to the Utah State Line on the west, this was western railroading at its best.
