Oral History Program Stephen Wedell Interviewed by Lorrie Rands 11 May 2019 Oral History Program Weber State University Stewart Library Ogden, Utah Stephen Wedell Interviewed by Lorrie Rands 11 May 2019 Copyright © 2020 by Weber State University, Stewart Library iii Mission Statement The Oral History Program of the Stewart Library was created to preserve the institutional history of Weber State University and the Davis, Ogden and Weber County communities. By conducting carefully researched, recorded, and transcribed interviews, the Oral History Program creates archival oral histories intended for the widest possible use. Interviews are conducted with the goal of eliciting from each participant a full and accurate account of events. The interviews are transcribed, edited for accuracy and clarity, and reviewed by the interviewees (as available), who are encouraged to augment or correct their spoken words. The reviewed and corrected transcripts are indexed, printed, and bound with photographs and illustrative materials as available. The working files, original recording, and archival copies are housed in the University Archives. Project Description Railroad Sesquicentennial Project. In 2019, the joining of the railways at Promontory Point in Utah celebrated its 150th anniversary. This oral history project was conducted at the Union Station in Ogden, Utah, on May 9 and 10, 2019, and captured stories from individuals and their family members who worked on the railroad throughout the intermountain west. ____________________________________ Oral history is a method of collecting historical information through recorded interviews between a narrator with firsthand knowledge of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of preserving substantive additions to the historical record. Because it is primary material, oral history is not intended to present the final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a spoken account. It reflects personal opinion offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it is partisan, deeply involved, and irreplaceable. ____________________________________ Rights Management This work is the property of the Weber State University, Stewart Library Oral History Program. It may be used freely by individuals for research, teaching and personal use as long as this statement of availability is included in the text. It is recommended that this oral history be cited as follows: Wedell, Stephen, an oral history by Lorrie Rands, 11 May 2019, WSU Stewart Library Oral History Program, University Archives, Stewart Library, Weber State University, Ogden, UT. Stephen Wedell 11 May 2019 1 Abstract: The following is an oral history interview with Stephen Wedell, conducted on May 11, 2019 at the Union Station, in Ogden, Utah, by Lorrie Rands. In this interview Stephen discusses his life and his family’s memories of working for the Union Pacific Railroad. Natalie Rands, the video technician, and Stephen’s wife Barbara, are also present during this interview. LR: Today is May 11, 2019 and we are at the Union Station in Ogden, Utah, talking with Stephen Wedell about his family memories of working on the railroad. My name is Lorrie Rands, conducting the interview, and Natalie Rands is with me, as well as his wife, Barbara. Thank you. So, do you go by Steve or Stephen? SW: Steve. LR: Steve, let’s start with your grandfather, some of the memories you have of him. SW: I first came to Ogden in 1959, and I flew here from San Francisco, California. I’m originally from San Francisco. My grandfather took me back on the Southern Pacific. That was my first experience on the train. While here, I learned that he worked for the Union Pacific in the roundhouse for many, many years. His name was Joseph Wedell. LR: Did he work at the roundhouse here in Ogden? SW: That’s correct. LR: Do you know what some of his duties were? SW: [shakes head] I don’t know. 2 LR: Okay, do you know how long he worked here? SW: He worked here until the early 1960s, I don’t remember the exact dates. LR: Okay, so your first time on a train was in 1959. SW: Yes. LR: So what prompted you to start working on the railroad? SW: I didn’t work on it. I traveled on it many times to and from San Francisco. I traveled here almost every summer, starting in 1963 until 1969, visiting relatives here in Ogden. LR: Okay. So what are your memories of the station? SW: I would arrive early in the morning and had breakfast. I visited the relatives here and then went to their homes. On our return trips, I remember waiting until nine or ten o’clock at night. I remember the experiences of being on the train, being glued to the windows, because they had observation cars. One experience I remember, I believe I was like twelve or thirteen at the time and my brother and I, by ourselves, got on the train and went all the way back to Kansas City on the Union Pacific. We just ran up and down the cars, spent probably all night long in the observation cars. No parents or anything like that. The meals I remember were served on fine china and were on white, linen tablecloths with a rose in a vase. The meals were just incredible. LR: Wow, so I know it's an odd thing to think of today, but they actually served meals and had a dining car and everything when you would travel? 3 SW: I always had the meals in the dining car itself and had salmon or chicken. The meals were very elegant on the train. LR: That’s really cool. So as you’ve traveled up and down and come to the station, how has this station changed? SW: Well, the outside hasn’t really changed to me but I can remember the porters that would be walking in and the gentleman that would check your tickets. The lobby has not changed much. LR: Now, there used to be subways to get to the tracks. SW: Yes, you would come in on probably the second or third track out and cross underneath. You could hear the different freight trains coming in and then walk up the stairs and into the lobby area. LR: So the stairs that went down, do you know where they were at in the station? SW: The stairs were located by the main doors and depending on which car you got off on or onto, you might have to walk along the platforms before getting to the stairway. LR: Okay. You said you could hear the...? SW: The freight trains going, or other trains that were coming through the station at the time that our train had stopped. LR: Right. Was that eerie, to be down under there? SW: No, I thought it was kind of cool. It’d be like going underneath an area and you hear trains crossing over, it was neat. That’s why I really fell in love with the 4 railroad. I never worked for the railroad, just had passion for it. We were fortunate to be in Oregon, when the 150th year anniversary of the Union Pacific was being celebrated. My wife and I were traveling on Amtrak from Washington into Portland and we actually were able to go onto one of the anniversary trains that came. It was traveling around the country. LR: Oh, okay, was that in 2000? SW: I believe so. It was the 150th year anniversary of the Union Pacific Railroad. LR: I’m thinking about your perspective, when did it change from passenger to— because when you were riding the rails it was passenger trains and whatnot. SW: Right, passenger trains had priority and then the freight trains. In 1987, my family traveled from Portland and passenger trains still had precedence over freight trains. Approximately in 1987 is when freight trains were starting to take priority over passenger trains. BW: We were actually assigned to a disability car and we had three young children at the time. The accommodations were like a suite. It was great. LR: When was this? BW: Our son was born in 1986 so I’m thinking it was maybe the summer of 1987 ‘cause he has a December birthday. SW: I don’t recall having to wait on the side tracks. More recently, my wife and I took a trip down to Little Rock, Arkansas on the train. Our kids thought we were nuts because we’ve flown there many times from the Portland, Oregon area but we 5 wanted to take the train. We went from Portland to Sacramento, from Sacramento all the way to near Springfield and then to Little Rock. Afterwards we traveled through the Southwest and eventually back to Portland. By that time, I realized how you don’t plan on getting to a destination when the schedule says you will. I mean, there’s always delays. We were like five hours late arriving into Little Rock. The people have always been what we remember. You really have the opportunity to sit down and get to know people, whereas on a plane, you just sit in a seat. You may go to the restroom, but you’re sitting in a seat and you might meet the person to the right or to the left of you. When on the train, we walked and met people from all over the United States, people from Europe and Australia were on the train trip to Little Rock. It was delightful to hear their stories and share our stories, and so forth. LR: Yeah. That’s a different way of traveling. SW: It’s wonderful, but you have to have time and you can’t be on a time schedule. LR: That’s really cool. Now you mentioned, before we started this, your cousin had an experience? SW: My cousin is Mike Burdett. I noticed his name was down in the museum where the Golden Spike is displayed. It was the 100th anniversary celebration of the Golden Spike when he was asked to take it back to Stanford University. He had an entire sleeper car to himself and he couldn’t leave that car until he got there. The Golden Spike had to be in his presence at all times. When he got to the train station, near Palo Alto, he took a cab from the train station to the University. The 6 library, where they housed it, was closed and he ended up staying in an inexpensive hotel for the night. He delivered the Golden Spike the next morning. I didn’t even know about this until a recent trip here to Ogden back in 2013 when he shared that experience with us. LR: Oh, but that’s pretty cool though. BW: Mike is very active in this station. SW: He has been very involved, along with all my relatives. My grandfather and my uncle were heavily involved with the train station too. My uncle was not totally instrumental, but he was involved in helping to get the car exhibit here. I assume it’s still here. LR: Yeah, it’s still here. SW: My uncle’s name was William G. Burdett and he was very involved with several exhibits, and Mike was his son. William was really involved with the formation of the museum. He helped develop the rifle and car exhibits.. LR: Yeah, the Browning museum. SW: They were involved in that. I’m not sure to what extent. LR: Okay, so William Burdett was involved in helping create the museum? SW: I think in parts of it, or at least he volunteered a lot down at the train station and the exhibits. William was also very instrumental in some of the Navajo jewelry and so forth. 7 LR: Okay. So you know he volunteered but you don’t know the extent, okay. You know, if you have time, the car museum is right down the hallway. SW: We always go there. BW: We love going to the car museum. LR: And the Browning museum is just right here. You can get to it from this floor, I’ll show you as we walk out. He’s from Ogden, Browning is. I think it’s pretty cool. SW: It’s incredible. I mean, we haven’t been here and the train station is like the heart. I remember driving down 25th Street coming to and from the train station and seeing how it’s changed over the years. It was, I don’t want to say slum area, but it was not one of the areas that you would want to go. LR: You can say that. SW: I remember you’d go to Washington Avenue where my aunt ran a knit shop here in town. LR: Okay, do you know what her name was? What’s her name? SW: Mickey Burdett and she ran the— BW: Her actual name was Cecilia. SW: But we called her Mickey. She owned the knit shop, the Jittery Knittery I think it was called, on 27th Street. It’s still there and my other cousin still runs it. As I recall, it was in the home where my grandparents lived, the family home. The thing I can remember is that it had more inventory, in terms of yarns and all that stuff, than any other knitting store in the entire state of Utah. The ceilings were 8 ten feet tall and it was stacked from floor to ceiling with a narrow walkway between. You ought to go there. LR: I actually crochet, so I might. SW: My other aunt taught English at Central Junior High. Later she went and taught Latin at the high school, and eventually, she taught Latin for a short period of time at Weber College, before it became a state university. LR: Who was this? SW: It was my other aunt, Eleanor Wedell, so there’s a lot of family history here. LR: Yeah, there is. I know what brought you, but what brought you here today? SW: I had heard that there was going to be a celebration. We have neighbor friends that we’ve gone on shorter trips with in the past. I just recently retired as a teacher. I said, “This has got to be a place we go, we’re going here.” I’ve been out to Promontory Point before but it was just incredible yesterday. LR: Oh I’m sure it was. I know they did a little bit here on Thursday with the 844 and the 4014, but yesterday at Promontory was... SW: Oh, it was magnificent. We had a chance to meet a lady, who was the great-great- great-great-granddaughter of, BW: A man named Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames with Ames Shovels. SW: He donated eight million dollars to the railroad because the railroad was short funds to complete the railroad. I asked her, “How did they come up, in 1869, with 9 eight million dollars?” He came up with these shovels and they sold the shovels to the railroad. BW: Next to the Golden Spike vault that has the Golden Spike in it, in the museum down stairs, across from it there is an old Ames shovel. SW: Ames shovels are still sold at Costco. LR: That’s really cool. Is there any other story you’d like to share before we turn off the camera? SW: I think that’s it. LR: Well, thank you so much for taking the time to share these memories ‘cause this is just fantastic. SW: There’s so many stories. BW: I’m glad you’re doing this for our future. It’s important. SW: I remember the height of the train cars when getting on and just being able to walk freely with no parents. Other than the very first trip, it was just with my brothers and I. We were all by ourselves and we were going from one point to another. LR: That’s unheard of today. SW: Yes. The older train cars were not as tall as those in service today. Recently my wife and I went to visit my brother down in California. We went to Donner’s Summit in Northern California and walked through the old tunnels that the trains 10 went through. You can walk through the old tunnels and hear the trains in the new tunnels because the new trains are too tall to use the old ones. LR: Okay, they had to build new tunnels. I didn’t know that. SW: Yes. So if you ever go there, it’s just right around Donner Summit. You get off the interstate freeway and drive along the old Highway 40 a few miles. LR: That’s really cool.