Jupiter (locomotive)

The ''Jupiter'' (officially known as Central Pacific Railroad #60) was a 4-4-0 steam locomotive owned by the Central Pacific Railroad. It made history when it joined the Union Pacific ''No. 119'' at Promontory Summit, Utah, during the Golden Spike ceremony commemorating the completion of the First transcontinental railroad in 1869.

The ''Jupiter'' was built in September 1868 by the Schenectady Locomotive Works of New York, along with four other engines of identical specifications, numbered 61, 62, 63, and 84, named the ''Storm'', ''Whirlwind'', and ''Leviathan'', and ''Gazelle'' respectively. These were then dismantled and sailed to San Francisco, California, loaded onto a river barge, and sent to the Central Pacific headquarters in Sacramento. After reassembly they were commissioned into service on March 20, 1869.

History

The ''Jupiter'' was assigned to the railroad's Salt Lake Division, the third and eastern most segment of the road traveling east from Sacramento, operating in passenger and general goods services as well as construction trains from Toano, Nevada to Promontory Summit, and later Ogden, Utah. When Leland Stanford's train had arrived in Toano, enroute to Promontory, its engine was removed from the train and readied for another westbound train, while the ''Jupiter'' was to carry Stanford's train on the final leg of its journey to the Golden Spike Ceremony.

Post-ceremony career

After the ceremony, ''Jupiter'' continued in service for the Central Pacific. In the 1870s, the railroad decided to end their practice of naming their engines, and thus, the ''Jupiter'' name was dropped and the engine was simply known as C.P. #60. The locomotive also received many upgrades, including a new boiler, cowcatcher, domes, and smokestack. In 1891, the Southern Pacific, which acquired the Central Pacific in 1885, began renumbering its locomotives, and C.P. #60 became S.P. #1195. In 1893 it was converted to burn coal, and later that year was sold to the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway and designated GVG&N #1. In 1909, the railway, which had been acquired by the Southern Pacific in 1901, sold the engine for scrap.

Reproductions

The Southern Pacific, by 1901, had been placed under the control of the Union Pacific, the management of which remained largely indifferent towards both the ''Jupiter'' and the railroad's own no. 119, acknowledging neither's historical significance until well after being scrapped. For events such as the 1939 New York World's Fair and the Chicago Railroad Fair, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad's cosmetically altered ''Genoa'' locomotive stood in for the ''Jupiter'' in reenactments of the Golden Spike ceremony.

The 1939 film Union Pacific also featured a recreation of the ceremony, in which the ''Jupiter'' was portrayed by Virginia and Truckee Railroad's ''Inyo''. In 1969, in observation of the centennial of the Golden Spike, the ''Genoa'' again portrayed the Jupiter, operating on a section of restored trackage at the Golden Spike National Historic Site with the Virginia and Truckee's ''Reno'' portraying the Union Pacific no. 119. The same year, the Union Pacific operated a special exhibition train, consisting of the Virginia and Truckee's ''Inyo'' and ''Dayton'' as proxies, along with vintage railroad construction equipment, all displayed on flatcars, which toured various parts of the Union Pacific network through the year. In 1970, the ''Reno'' was sold to Old Tucson Studios, while the ''Genoa'' was returned to the state of California, with the ''Inyo'' and ''Dayton'' replacing them as displays at Promontory.

In 1974, the National Park Service had approached O'Connor Engineering Laboratories of Costa Mesa, California, to construct exact, full-size replicas of the ''Jupiter'' and Union Pacific ''119''. As was the case with the engines themselves, no drawings or plans of the engines survived, necessitating entirely new drawings to be produced based mostly on photos of the engines as well as research done on similar engines built around the same time. That same year, the existing engines portraying the ''Jupiter'' and ''119'' (the ''Inyo'' and ''Dayton'', respectively), had been sold to the state of Nevada, though they remained displayed at the Golden Spike NHS until the construction of the new replicas was complete. Noted railroad historian and steam engine owner Gerald M. Best served as engineering consultant to the Park Service for the project. Former Disney animator Ward Kimball was given the task of painting the replicas. The ''Jupiter'' was given a bright red paint scheme with gold leafing, typical of locomotives built in the 1870s.

The replicas were completed in 1979, and began operations on May 10 of that year, 110 years after the original Golden Spike ceremony, and continue to make demonstration runs.

In the early 1990s, a vague description of the ''Jupiter''s livery had been found in a recently uncovered March 1869 issue of ''The Sacramento Bee'', in which the engine was said to be blue, crimson, and gold. The engine was repainted into its current livery based on this finding along with further research on liveries of similar engines of the time. The repainted engine debuted on May 10, 1994, coinciding with the 125th anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony.

Other historic Jupiter locomotives

Jupiter was known as "King of Gods" or "God of Sky", and it was common for railroads of the 1800s to name engines after this and other mythological legends to invoke awe and wonder. Thus, there have been many engines named "Jupiter" by their respective railroads that, apart from the name, had little else in common with the engine of Golden Spike fame. One such engine is Santa Cruz Railroad no. 3, also named ''Jupiter''. This engine, owned by the Smithsonian Museum, is also a wood-burning 4-4-0. However, this engine was built for narrow-gauge track, unlike the broader standard gauge of the trains at the Golden Spike ceremony.

In 2009, Kloke Locomotive Works built a full-size replica of one of the ''Jupiters sibling engines, the ''Leviathan'', No. 63, which is in operating condition. It was rented by multiple tourist railroads until being purchased by Stone Gable Estates in 2018 for operation on the Harrisburg, Lincoln and Lancaster Railroad in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. Stone Gable Estates relettered the locomotive as Pennsylvania Railroad No. 331, a now-scrapped steam locomotive that pulled Abraham Lincoln's funeral train.

See also

* Union Pacific No. 119
* List of heritage railroads in the United States

References

*

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jupiter (Locomotive)
Steam locomotives of the United States
Southern Pacific Railroad locomotives
4-4-0 locomotives
Individual locomotives of the United States
Schenectady Locomotive Works locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1868
Scrapped locomotives
Standard gauge locomotives of the United States
Articles containing video clips