1848 Golden Spike Car - Great Western Steam Up

This week we are looking at one of America's most important railroad artifacts; the "Golden Spike Car" at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City.

This car transported Lealand Stanford and the golden and silver spikes to the "Wedding of the Rails" at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. Only two cars from the two trains that traveled to Promontory still exist, this and Central Pacific car No. 12, built in 1869 just for the event by Wason Manufacturing Co. in Springfield, Mass.

This is the car that carried Stanford, other Central Pacific officials, and the golden and silver spikes to the ceremony and was known as “The Commissioners’ Car.” And today is simply called Coach 17. It was built in the CP shops in Sacramento, which still exist, and is part of the California State Railroad Museum.

Origanally the car was Charles Crocker's private car but was then used by Stanford as an office car. It and a freight and baggage car were pulled by Central Pacific's locomotive the "Jupiter" to the event. A few years after Promontory, it was sold to Nevada’s Virginia and Truckee Railroad and in 1878 converted to a passenger car known as Coach 17. It was in use there until 1937 when the V&T sold much of its equipment to Hollywood film companies.

Coach 17 was used in a number of movies, including the 1924 John Ford film, “The Iron Horse,” a silent film telling the story of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad. Others included “Jesse James,” “Centennial Summer,” and the Elvis Presley movie “Love Me Tender.” In 1972, it was sold to Short Line Enterprises for continued movie service. It was used in one of Kenny Rogers’ “Gambler” movies and made its final Hollywood appearance in Clint Eastwood’s “Pale Rider.”

In 1988, Coach 17 was purchased by the State of Nevada.

NOW... there is a rumor that the car MAY be traded to the California State Railroad Museum for Virginia & Truckee No. 21 the J.W. Bowker, which was sent to the Great Western Steam up. We PERSONALLY think that would be great, as this is perhaps the most significant remaining railroad artifact from the transcontinental railroad and the California State Railroad Museum is the defacto transcontinental railroad museum. AND for the time being Central Pacific car No. 12 is also at the California State Railroad Museum where it is being restored. No. 12 was built by Wason Manufacturing Co. in Springfield, Mass just for the Golden Spike event in 1869 and transported to New York and then traveled by rail to Omaha where the Union Pacific added it and another car to their train pulled by Union Pacific locomotive 119 to Promontory Summit. The two cars were not part of the event as Union Pacific had no interest in having two Central Pacific cars on display as part of their train, so they were side-tracked during the event. However, after the event, the two cars were added to the CP train and taken to Sacramento where they were loaded onto a Southern Pacific river boat and taken to San Francisco where they were placed on SP tracks making them the first cars ever to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

It is destined to be removed to the not yet built Southern Pacific Railroad History Center in Rocklin, Calif., HOWEVER, if it stayed at the California State Railroad Museum too... well that wouldn't suck...