nine o'clock
It was here that General Dodge inaugurated the Union Pacific road on the 23rd of October , 1867 . Here two powerful locomotives with nine carriages full of guests stopped , three cheers were given , the Sioux and Pawnee Indians had a sham fight , fireworks were let off , and the first number of a paper called _ The Railway Pioneer _ was printed in a press carried in the train . Fort MacPherson was passed at eight in the morning ; they had still three hundred and fifty-seven miles to go to Omaha . At nine o'clock the train stopped at North Platte , a town built between the two arms of the river . The hundred-and-first meridian was now passed . Mr. Fogg and his partner had resumed their whist ; none of them , not even the dummy , complained of the length of the journey . Fix had at first won several guineas which he now seemed about to lose , but he was not a less passionate player than Fogg .