Ogden Union Station Museums
November 18, 2006

The turn out was small but sympatico at this final club event of 2006. Rendezvous was by stealth at the Utah Capitol north parking lot -- there were so many state vehicles there that those who mustered didn't cluster and your leader thought he was alone!

So, the true rendezvous was outside the Union Station, where those from counties north of Salt Lake appeared in British cars and provided the nucleation point. Once inside there was plenty of elbow room, since the museums and other public spaces were pretty much empty except for volunteers installing holiday decorations and a wedding party setting up for a reception that evening.

The museums themselves were charming and informative, as always. We started with the railroad museum, which tells the travails of building the transcontinental iron way. Local history is featured, including the challenges in building the Lucin Cutoff, a series of 4,618(!) wooden trestles across the Great Salt Lake.

Next we stopped at the Browning Firearms Museum, which features the history, craftsmanship, and technology of gunsmithing, from the early 1800's to modern day. Of particular interest is the recreation of Jonathan Browning's Iowa workshop, showing the inventive tools used for making rifles, e.g., a monstrous wooden rifling (spiral groove cutting) jig.

Final, and feature stop for us was the Browning Automotive Collection. This is a small but superb quality collection of American cars, featuring luxury cars of the 20's and 30's. The picture below shows our troop in front of a 1929 rumble seat Packard.

After enjoying the museums, we enjoyed lunch at Rooster's Pub on historic 25th Street near the station. All in all, it was a very enjoyable outing. Attending were John Progess, Paul Jaroch, Mitch and Diane Johnson, Marie and Kevin Cowan, Rich (didn't catch his last name), and me.

--Gary Lindstrom

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