Thursday, August 28, 2014

No planes....but plenty of trains & automobiles

Today is our lazy "non travel" day. We decided to go into Ogden and do a little sightseeing. We read about Union Station & its four museums and decided to visit it. The museum included Utah Cowboy, train, car and Browning & Wesson gun museums.....all for $4 a person! Learned some interesting thing about the trains that built the west. The gold spike that combined the two railroads is located in a safe in the museum (although there were 4). As the train companies got land grants and fees for each mile of completed track, there was no incentive to complete but to build extra miles of lines & both went past each other in construction. Finally President Grant brought representatives of Union Pacific & Central Pacific to Washington, DC to negotiate where the railroad would meet and a date was set. Also read about the Merci or the French Gratitude Train, also known as the Forty and eight. After WWII, France sent a boxcar for each state plus Washington, DC & Hawaii territory, filled with presents as a thank you for all the US did during the war and for the reconstruction aid after the war. The car for Utah is at the museum but the whereabouts of all the gifts is unknown. (Just checked & NC's is at Spencer & mist of contents at NC Museum of History or at libraries & other museum in NC).



































They had a huge model train layout.



Actual working model guns....see the bullets on the bottom one. Master gunsmiths had to make one to be consider a "master".




After the museums, we ate at our favorite restaurant in Utah....In & Out. Salad for dinner tonight.



Other some things we saw in the Historic District.




This afternoon we drove down the Ogden River Canyon Scenic Parkway.










We think this water reservoir pipes!



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