Wyoming's place in railroad history is secure, and the opportunities for watching trains and train crews in action are legion. Southern Wyoming's development is linked with the Union Pacific Railroad. It laid tracks westward across the state in 1867 and '68 in a race to build the first transcontinental railroad. Settlements sprang up virtually overnight to house legions of workers. Some were abandoned. Others became permanent communities.

Cheyenne, now the state capital, was never a primitive railroad camp but was built almost overnight as a grandiose and sophisticated city. The domed capitol and the splendidly steepled Romanesque-style train depot, built in 1886, instantly became and still remain landmarks. The new Cheyenne Depot Museum is housed in the beautifully restored depot. While there is no longer passenger service, freight trains pass by frequently, and rail fans linger on the overpass to gaze at the UP's massive rail yards and roundhouse. Its shop houses Steam Locomotive 844, the last steam engine built for the line. To arrange a visit, call 307-778-3339.

No special arrangements are necessary to see one of the largest, most powerful locomotives ever built. Big Boy 4004 - 132 feet long, weighing 600 tons and capable of pulling a 5½-mile-long train - is permanently located in Holliday Park, nine blocks from the depot. Of the 25 Big Boys that were made, only eight are on display somewhere in the country. Big Boys were built between 1941 and 1944 to climb Sherman Hill between Cheyenne and Laramie, and the last of these behemoths were retired in 1962.