Laundry Building
The laundry operations at the Union Station date to 1906, when they were carried out in the commissary building (now demolished, on the site of the current Eccles Rail Center). Soiled linens and cloth from sleeper and diner cars were removed from the trains and washed during their stop in Ogden. in 1951 Union Pacific constructed a 100 by 180 foot brick building for the express purpose of washing laundry; prior to this time excess laundry that was not able to be handled in the commissary building was sent out to commercial facilities.
The building was constructed to centralize the Union Pacific's laundry operations and to cut costs by an estimated fifty percent. It was the only laundry facility constructed by the Union Pacific and was expected to pay for itself within three years. Laundry was sent to Ogden from all ends of the Union Pacific Lines, and even took in laundry from Sun Valley, Idaho; West Yellowstone Lodge; Bryce Canyon National Park; Zion National Park; and Grand Canyon National Park as well as other resorts and hotels.
The use of the latest equipment, such as nine Troy Electromatic washers, 42 individual pressers and seven diesel powered Vapor-Clarkson steam generators, as well as 105 employees, gave the building a capacity to process 110,000 individual pieces of laundry during an eight-hour shift, or about 13,333 individual pieces per hour.
The laundry facility was closed in 1970 and was donated to the City of Ogden in 1986. It remains empty to this day.
Read more about this topic: Union Station (Ogden, Utah)
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