Replica trains head to This Is the Place

ST. GEORGE — Replicas of two famous trains are on their way to Utah's This Is the Place Heritage Park to re-enact a defining moment in the nation's history.

The small-scale, rubber-tired trains are authentic, realistic reproductions of the Central Pacific Jupiter and the Union Pacific 119, two powerful locomotives that raced toward Utah on the country's first transcontinental railroad.

Ellis Ivory, chairman of the park's board, said one of the replica trains is on a "whistle-stop tour" of Utah's back roads and towns. On Saturday, residents of the St. George area were invited to hop on board two of the train's passenger cars for a leisurely ride around a parking lot in Bloomington.

"This is so cool!" Maren Egbert, 8, said enthusiastically as she waited for a train ride during a cool and blustery Saturday morning. "I wanna go on a ride! It's so fun!"

The original transcontinental trains met on May 10, 1869, at Promontory, uniting the nation's east/west rail lines and ushering in a new era of transportation.

This Is the Place Heritage Park officials will re-enact that moment Thursday at the park with the help of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who plans to wear period clothing to help set the mood. Even early LDS Church leader Brigham Young will be at the ceremony, said Jeff Stevens, a BYU Young Ambassador who strapped on a fake beard and wore period clothing to portray Young at Saturday's event in Dixie.

"I missed the first one and I sure as shootin' aren't going to miss this one!" said Stevens, who sang several railroad tunes with Nicole Walton, another music and dance graduate of BYU who said her performance name was "Miss Ivory."

Six-year-old Preslee Harris was thrilled to ride in the passenger cars three times with her dad, Wayne Harris, who said he was looking forward to riding the trains at the park.

"It will be a lot better than walking around up there," he said. "It'll be really nice."

That's the sort of reaction Ivory is hoping for and the reason why the park commissioned the handmade trains from Jerry Shipman in Phoenix.

"We really studied this problem of getting people from the parking lot and around the park's 430 acres," said Ivory. "We borrowed a train engine and car from Brigham City for the Fourth of July and 24th of July last year, and it was a huge success. Kids and families just lined up to get on, it was incredibly successful."

After much research, Ivory said the park found Shipman, a retired airline pilot who also happens to build small-scale passenger trains.

"Jerry and his crew are, frankly, train nuts," said Ivory. "They study trains, love trains, live trains."