People climb rock formations to get a look and a photograph as refurbished steam engine Big Boy 4014 makes the long climb westward out of Cheyenne toward Laramie. Thick crowds awaited the retro train in stations between Cheyenne and Ogden, Utah and thronged a pedestrian bridge across the tracks in Laramie. (Charles Pelkey)

People lined the railroad right-of-way from Cheyenne to Rawlins on Saturday, waiting for a train to carry them back to an earlier time.

Union Pacific’s refurbished Big Boy 4014 traveled from Cheyenne to Ogden, Utah, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The steam-powered engine has been retired for 60 years, according to reporting in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

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The train stopped in Harriman, Laramie and Medicine Bow on Saturday before overnighting in Rawlins, according to the paper.

Rep. Charles Pelkey (D-Laramie) took this photo from a ranch west of Cheyenne where the tracks thread through wind-eroded rock formations  and rocky canyons approximately five miles south of Ames Monument. The monument was once the highest point on the Transcontinental Railroad at 8,247 feet before the Union Pacific moved the tracks south.  

Andrew Graham covers criminal justice for WyoFile.

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  1. Thanks for posting my photo. I had a terrific time waiting for the Big Boy to come through the canyon. I met folks from England and Australia. I heard later that people had come from South Africa, Japan and China. And to think my house is just three blocks from the tracks in Laramie.

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