Nevada Northern Doubleheader, pt 1, 1 Sept 2018
I had not been to the Nevada Northern in 30 years.
In 1982, Dad and I rose an excursion that ran the length of the line from Cobre to Ely and then the next day, explored the lines to the mine at Ruth and the smelter at McGill. The NN and the mine and mill were still in business in 1982, the railroad delivering copper to the WP at Schafter and the SP at Cobre. Dick Reynolds’ Great Western Tours put on the excursion, extra cars on Amtrak and connecting buses to and from Ogden.
In 1988, with the mine and railway shut down for freight and the railway in the Ely area reopened for excursion service, and with the shops, yard and offices in East Ely now a museum, Dad and I drove the "Loneliest Highway in America", US 50 across Nevada, to Ely to ride the trains to Ruth and McGill. 40 was supposed to pull the train to Ruth and we saw it running on the morning train as we approached Ely, but it had a mechanical problem and our afternoon trains were pulled by a Kennecott Copper Alco RS-3. Oh, well, not a bad consolation prize. We had a tour of the shops, which seemed to be just as they were when the railroad shut down in1983. The calendar on the wall was still turned to the month when the line shut down, tools were on workbenches, a locomotive axle was in a lathe, all waiting for the workers to come back in the morning. Just a layer of dust reminded us that it had been 5 years since the workers went home and never came back.
And then 30 years passed. I suggested trips to Ely over the years, but my wife did not think that driving 8 hours to the middle of nowhere ranked high on her list of great ways to spend a long weekend. The girls considered trips to Ely and Great Basin National Park, but it never worked out.
So, 30 years went by.
This weekend, Anne and Elizabeth are having a mom-daughter weekend at the coast, like they do most years and with the car not completely unpacked from last weekend’s Palisade camp out, I thought about heading east. Friday, after work, I packed up, put the dogs in the backseat, left a bunch of food for the cats and headed east.
We got as far as a bit east of Fallon, Nevada before I decided to call it a night. We found a dirt road off of US 50 and I put a camp mattress across the back seat of the car and managed to get a few hours of sleep, with one door open, so my legs would have room to stretch out. Nature called at 0550, with the eastern sky turning pink and we were on the road into the sunrise a short time later.
Then the car started having issues. The temperature would start rising after I’d been driving for a while and I’d stop and add water to the radiator. This went on all the way into Ely, by which time I was concerned about the car getting back home. The lady at the gas station where I filled up pointed me to an auto parts store where I got some radiator stop leak and they pointed me at a hardware store where I got more water jugs to supplement the 5 gallon jug that I already had.
Car or no car, the Nevada Northern was moving equipment in their yard, two steam engines by the sound of the whistles that I could hear while getting stuff for the car.
When i got to the East Ely depot, 4-6-0 40 and 2-8-0 93 were coupled to the day’s train, 2 coaches, an open car and a caboose.
I got some photos of the train as it awaited boarding and then got some fast food for lunch, getting kid’s burgers for the dogs in the back seat.
We followed the train out of town and up the hill to Ruth. It was not going fast, allowing the dozen or so people chasing it plenty of chances for photos.
40 and 93 both started life as saturated steam engines and were later superheated. The new steam pipes from the superheater header to the cylinders give both engines a "Popeye with his hands on his hips" look, similar to the Indian BESA converted SGC, HGC and HPC engines.
NN 40 is the only operating full size locomotive in the western USA that has Baker valve gear, AFAIK. Baker was popular in the east on such lines as NYC, Nickel Plate, N&W and others, but, for whatever reasons, did not catch on with SP, UP, ATSF, GN, WP, Rio Grande, or NP.
This album shows the train at the East Ely station and climbing to Ruth. Part two will be the return trip.
Posted by tisdalem2001 on 2018-09-03 00:34:14
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