Okay, what's this all about? Turns out it's a celebration of the May 10, 1869 event where the “golden spike” was driven into the final tie that joined 1,776 miles of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways, ceremonially creating the nation’s first transcontinental railroad in Promontory Summit, Utah.
The event is sponsored by Amtrak, MasterCard and, of all things, Wheel of Fortune TV show. So I'm not sure just how much of this has to do with trains and how much of it has to do with getting people to spend money.
Anyway, thought you would want to know!
