Long before Draper was known for its technology companies and tree-lined suburbs, the city was home to the famous Draper “Milk White” eggs, as well as a rail line that helped transport them across the country. The new Draper TRAX Line honors the city’s rich agricultural history with a reproduction of one of the original rail cars at the Draper Town Center Station.

The station features a train car that was salvaged in Kanab and refurbished to create a historically accurate version of a refrigerated egg car. Visitors to the station can rest under the canopy and read one of several panels that contain information about the famous eggs, Draper’s agricultural heritage and the city’s Native American and pioneer settlers.

At a time when many farm eggs were mottled brown or beige, the eggs produced in Draper were milky white. The eggs, laid by specially bred white Leghorn chickens, were shipped across the country using refrigerated train cars that would be filled with ice every 250 to 400 miles to ensure contents stayed fresh. The eggs were endorsed by many celebrities, most notably Liberace, one of the most famous performers of the time.  More than 2,000 rail cars of eggs per year were shipped to destinations like LA, Chicago, Detroit and the Waldorf Hotel in New York City during the peak egg production decades between WWI and WWII.

The historical reproduction was created by a community panel that included the State Historic Preservation Office, the Utah Heritage Foundation, the Draper Historical Society, Draper City, the Intermountain Farmers Association, the Utah Transit Authority and the Federal Transportation Agency. The Draper TRAX Line will begin service on Sunday, Aug. 18.

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