Nevada's Famous Virginia and Truckee Railway
V&T Star Steam Locomotive -- #22, the Inyo
photos by Jim Lohse of TrainArts.com and LivingSteam.com
 The Inyo Steams Up at Carson City  Bill Kohler, 2008 Friends of the Museum President |
AFTER THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH, VIRGINIA CITY IS BORN ON SUN MOUNTAIN As gold became harder to find in California, miners drifted into Nevada looking for the next big strike. At the time, Lake Tahoe was known as Lake Bigler. Reno, Nevada was simply a place called Lake's Crossing where the Truckee Route of the Emigrant Trail crossed the Truckee River before heading up to infamous Donner Pass. No one would have guessed in 1855 that the Virginia Range fifteen miles northeast of Lake Bigler would soon yield a silver strike of epic proportions. Gold was found at Six Mile Canyon in 1859. As the prospectors continued their search, the followed the gold trail to the slopes of Mt. Davidson, then known as Sun Mountain. The biggest barrier to gold mining was a sticky blue-gray mud. For some time this mud was cursed and ignored, until it was assayed. The assay estimated that the pesky mud held $2000 per ton of silver, in 1860 dollars. The next great mining boom was begun, and the Comstock Lode staked out its place in Western United States history. For nearly ten years various groups planned railroads in the region without every laying a rail. Teamsters carried out the arduous work of hauling the gold and silver ore down the hill to mills along the Carson River. In the late 1860s the surface ore was mostly gone, and people were forecasting the end of the boom. Representatives from the Bank of California D.O. Mills and William Sharon had a different idea. Eventually they gained a monopoly on the Comstock mines and mills by creating the Union Mills and Mining Company from properties taken in foreclosure by the Bank of California. Originally planning to bypass Eagle Valley, Mills and Sharon originally planned the railroad to head north, connecting with the new Central Pacific east of Reno, Nevada. When local counties offered financial help in exchange for rerouting the line, plans were changed and the road was rerouted down to the Carson River and up through Eagle Valley. In 1868, the group created the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. Construction began in 1869 and the first train rolled into Virginia City in 1870, putting the teamsters out of work. INYO -- DWELLING PLACE OF A GREAT SPIRIT The Virginia and Truckee's historic #22 Inyo steam locomotive lives on at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, Nevada. It's one of the few places where original steam locomotives operate in their native habitat. No museum has a larger collection of original V&T equipment. Only the California State Railroad Museum at Sacramento has another V&T locomotive in operable condition (#12, the Genoa). (continued below) |
(continued from above) To see the old Virginia and Truckee equipment in action, you only have two choices – rent an old movie or go to Carson City. While more modern, heavier steam engines often steal the show, this little 4-4-0 American called Inyo is worth watching! Inyo is an Indian word meaning “dwelling place of a great spirit.” In addition to the #22 Inyo, the Nevada State Railroad Museum has the V&T (second) #25 locomotive in operable condition. The Nevada museum is also home to the #27, which pulled the last commercial run of the V&T on May 31, 1950. The #18 Dayton is owned by the museum but is currently on loan to the Comstock Heritage Center in Virginia City. INYO MAKES A RUN On October 21, 2007, the Virginia & Truckee's #22 Inyo made it's semi-annual run around the museum track. It was brought out during the annual Railroad History Symposium held in “downtown” Carson City. For the first time in eighteen years the V&T #4 passenger coach was coupled to the Inyo -- in fact, it was the first time in eighteen years the venerable #4 saw the light of day. When the #4 was put into the museum 18 years ago, the bay doors were so narrow that the coach scraped the side of the building on its way in. Only the recent upgrade of the museum doors prompted the #4 into action again. The Inyo was built in 1875, making it one of the oldest operating steam locomotives in North America. The V&T purchased the 4-4-0 Baldwin for $9,065 to run in the switchyard at Gold Hill, just a mile down the hill from Virginia City, famous center of the Comstock Lode silver strike. In the 1890's the Inyo graduated into service hauling passenger cars on the V&T mainline between Virginia City and Reno. The Inyo worked the V&T portion of the Lightning Express through-service for sleepers between Virginia City and San Francisco. The V&T was a losing proposition after 1924 and was only kept alive by Ogden Livingston Mills, grandson of founder Darius Ogden Mills. Through O.L. Mills deep pockets the railroad was kept running through his death in 1938. The V&T survived another twelve years via the graces of the Mills estate managers. By 1938 the last train ran from Virginia City, and in 1941 the Virginia City branch tracks were ripped up for scrap. The tracks were sold to the Japanese government just in time for WWII -- it was a sad irony to see the Japanese use V&T rails for their war effort. By WWII time was short for the 'World's Crookedest Shortline Railroad.” In 1906 the line had been extended south to Minden, Nevada, about ten miles south of Carson City. The new mainline from Minden to Reno was used until the famous last run of May 31, 1950. The first years of the twentieth century saw many changes in the character of the V&T. Comstock silver mining, the original purpose of the V&T, had tailed off after 1880. When the gold and silver fields moved south, Mills, Ogden and Bliss founded the Carson and Colorado railroad to connect the V&T south to Wabuska, Tonopah and the Cerro Gordo mining district. That worked for a few years but things were pretty slow by 1900, when the prescient Southern Pacific bought the Carson and Colorado for $1.7 million. The very next year, another mining boom allowed Southern Pacific to recoup their investment within one year. Carson and Colorado founders Yerington and D.O. Mills were certainly kicking themselves, yet they remained the only rail connection between the southern mining districts and the Southern Pacific's Transcontinental route in Reno, Nevada. The V&T was again given a lease on life and hauled freight and passengers between the C&C and the SP. The V&T was in a unique position to connect the Southern Pacific to itself! This only lasted until SP, failing to buyout the V&T, built a bypass – the Hazen cutoff – from Hazen to Wabuska. After the SP bypassed the V&T, all that was left was limited passenger service and freight service to Carson Valley (Minden) and Virginia City. Although the V&T never went the one mile past Minden into Gardnerville, others did try. A proposed Gardnerville and Southern Railroad was planned and partially funded, and would have succeeded except for opposition from a Minden businessman who profited from the status quo. The G&S was never more than a dream and a partially completed grade. In 1948 there was talk of selling the railroad for scrap – luckily that never happened, or we wouldn't locomotives like the #27 at the museum today. The V&T filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission for abandonment in early 1949 and eventually received approval after a contentious hearing. The last V&T superintendent Gordon Sampson was vilified but exonerated himself, showing he had tried to find alternatives to abandonment. The very ranchers who said they needed the railroad to ship their cattle were using trucking services and giving the V&T “the crumbs,” according to Sampson. A STAR IS BORN Once the Inyo was done working at the Virginia and Truckee, it still had a lot of traveling to do. Lucky for us V&T history buffs, long before Virginia and Truckee abandonment, the Inyo was discovered by Hollywood! Paramount Pictures purchased the Inyo in 1937 and a star was born. The Inyo had a long career, appearing in 28 movies. These titles include Union Pacific, Apache, McClintock, The Virginian, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Great Locomotive Chase. The Inyo even had a cameo appearance in the Marx Brother's Go West – Groucho Marx stood in front of the smokebox in the closing scene of the movie. In the Harvey Girls, Judy Garland sang about the huffing and puffing of the ATSF alongside the #22 Inyo. On the small screen, the Inyo was used in the TV shows Gunsmoke, Wild Wild West and many more. After its TV and movie career, the Inyo was dressed up like the Central Pacific's Jupiter and stationed in Promontory, Utah at the Golden Spike National Historic Site. In 1974 the State of Nevada purchased the Inyo and later returned it home to Eagle Valley. The Nevada State Railroad museum did a restoration study to see whether to rehabilitate the #18 Dayton or the #22 Inyo. The decision was made that the little Inyo was much closer to running condition and work began. After a year of restoration, the Inyo debuted at the Nevada State Railroad Museum on May 29, 1983. SYMPOSIUM WEEKEND Every year the museum hosts the Nevada Railroad History Symposium. 2007 was the thirty-sixth year that railroad history fans gathered in Carson City to hear speakers on wide-ranging subjects like the Reno Trench project, McKeen motorcars, “Converting the V&T to Oil” and “American Flat Section Camps.” One speaker was Stephen Drew, Curator of the California State Railroad Museum. People travel long distances to attend the Symposium – many were from Southern California, and one man flies in from Sweden every year. The lectures happened on Friday and Saturday, October 19 and 20. Behind the scenes, on Saturday Lee “Hobo” Hobold prepared the Inyo for its Sunday run. Lee is a Restoration Specialist who works full-time at the Carson City museum. While volunteers run most of the equipment throughout the year, the Inyo is Lee's baby. Early on Saturday morning, while symposium people were just waking up to coffee and donuts, Lee was at work filling the Inyo's boiler and firebox for a test run. The day went well until the steam built to 50 psi. A leaky boiler plug was discovered, the pressure was let off and repairs were made. On Sunday morning, as the fresh sunlight reflected off the Inyo's brass, Lee was hard at work again. Aided by Fireman Bill Kohler (newly elected President of the Friends volunteer group) and apprentice Kevin Owens, the Inyo was ready to run by the time the public showed up. On Symposium Sunday the museum's steady workhorse #8 carried passengers in a coach, an open-air car and a caboose while the Inyo strutted its stuff pulling the #4. The Inyo still runs on its original boiler, the oldest working boiler on a locomotive in the United States. Originally the Inyo ran 130 lbs. of pressure and reached speeds of 60 miles per hour. Now the boiler is only certified by the state to run at 75 psi, sufficient to let the old #22 circle the museum at slower speeds. To get to the main track the locomotives leave the shop and use the only working turntable in Nevada, built in 1980 based on a historic turntable design. The volunteer crew had its hands full all day long punching tickets, throwing switches and guarding road crossings as the public enjoyed a historic ride. In addition to the operating ground crew, there were engineers, firemen, brakemen, conductors, car attendants and ticket sellers available to make the visitor's experience enjoyable. More volunteers were on hand to work in the museum store, at the front desk, in the annex/shops, and on the floor explaining Virginia and Truckee history. At the time the Nevada State Railroad Museum was the only place where original Virginia and Truckee equipment still ran. Bob Grays Virginia and Truckee tourist railroad runs on the original tracks from Virginia City to Gold Hill, but its decommissioned #29 is not an original V&T locomotive. An new tourist line is planned by the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation to connect Gold Hill to Carson City, hopefully by 2011 (see steamtrain.org). It's not likely that future railroad will use V&T originals either, so the Carson City museum is well positioned to be the only real home of the Virginia and Truckee. The Virginia and Truckee was born on good old American boosterism. The booster spirit is still alive and well in Carson City. The Northern Nevada Railway Foundation is promoting the Railroad Reflections International Art Show in Carson City to be launced in July, 2008. The show will feature a variety of railroad artists during late July and early August. This event will overlap Reno's Arttown events of July and Reno's world-reknown Hot August Nights. The organizers hope that Railroad Reflections will draw the hordes of Reno visitors to Carson City to help raise money and awareness for the V&T Railway project. The Northern Nevada Railway Foundation has partnered with Carson City's convention bureau and Nevada's Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee to obtain $20-30 million dollars of funding, hoping to have the new line open by 2011. All they need is another $20 million. Regardless of high hopes, boosterism and dreams, you can get your hands on the V&T today. The Nevada State Railroad Museum is open year-round from 8:30am to 4:30pm. Steam-up weekends with the #8 alternate with the #401 Tuscon, Cornelia and Gila Bend motorcar weekends from May to September. Two more steam-up weekends are planned in October and November. December traditionally features the Santa Train weekend. The Nevada state budget cuts may curtail some of these planned train rides. The special feature of 2008 will be the three-day 4th of July weekend which should feature the Inyo in operation. The Inyo is also scheduled to run one day during the 37th Nevada Railroad History Symposium in October, 2008. See you in Carson City!
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