Echo stood midway between the Union Pacific division points of Ogden and Evanston and became a logical railroad development point at the bottom of the steep climb through Echo Canyon. Coal-burning steam engines stopped there to take on coal, water, and sand for traction, and the railroad built a large coaling tower, water tower, turntable, four-stall engine house, and other servicing facilities. Water was plentiful there, while other supplies arrived by rail, and helper engines stationed at Echo were attached to eastbound trains to assist them up the canyon climb. Echo soon became Summit County's center of commerce, with warehouses full of groceries, hardware, and dry goods, while the discovery of silver in Park City and coal in Coalville spurred the construction of branch lines. With four to six engines stationed there and hundreds of men maintaining equipment and roadbed, Echo seemed poised for fame. In the age of steam, the railroad grade through Weber and Echo Canyons affected almost every locomotive the Union Pacific operated, and Echo was an important stop that serviced several dozen engines each day. A locomotive first went to the inspection pit, where workers crawled over and under it to look for worn or broken parts, top off lube reservoirs, and grease moving parts. It then moved to the water tower to fill its tender with hundreds of gallons of water, to the coaling tower to load tons of coal, and received dry sand in tanks above the boiler. The engine next went to the ash pit, where cinders and ash from the firepan were dumped, and was finally placed on the ready track for its next assignment weeks later.