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, en route 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.
In 1924 John Ford made the movie The Iron Horse, which showed a depiction of the ceremony with a title card that reads, "The wedding of the rails -- celebrated with joyous exultation in the uniting of East and West. The afternoon of May 10, 1869. Note: The locomotives shown in the scene are the original Jupiter and [sic] #116."
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, posing on a section of restored trackage at the Golden Spike National Historic Park 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.