Friday we drove 250 miles up to Ely (pronounced e-lee) in Northern Nevada to spend the night. Yesterday, we spent the day at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum (www.nnry.com). We had a blast! The museum is located at an old train yard (built in 1906) that was the hub of copper mining in Nevada. It has multiple tracks, an equipment barn for the locomotives and all sorts of other neat stuff you would want to see in a train yard. And the best part is that most of the equipment there was actually used in that yard. There are a few pieces of equipment that were purchased or donated from other locations, but not much.
We also rode the excursion train, Locomotive #40 pulling a coal tender, a dining car, a passenger car, a flatbed observation car and a caboose. #40 was built in either 1909 or 1910 (they have two and one of them turned 100 years old in 2009 and one a year later, don’t know which was which) and is a 4-6-0 coal powered steam engine. The other engine is #93 and she is a 2-8-0 and is also coal powered. #93 was recently completely rebuilt and is usually the engine used for these excursions, so we got lucky to be pulled by #40.
Just the chug-chug sound of the engine was exciting! It is something you hear on sound tracks, but rarely for real any more. The flatbed observation car had another “advantage” – coal cinders flying all over in the smoke – fortunately not hot by the time it got back to the flatbed. I was picking tiny bits of coal out of my hair for quite a while. And as usual, I forgot my camera.
The number designation indicates how many pilot or lead wheels, drive wheels and trailing wheels on a steam engine. The pilot wheels are usually on a “truck” in the front so they can pivot a bit going around curves and the trailing wheels (when they exist – they don’t on either of these two engines) are under the engineer’s cab.
Forgive the jargon, but we had fun yesterday and I have to show off my brand new knowledge. We drove back yesterday afternoon. Both ways were a very nice drive. Sunset on the desert can be very spectacular.
The weather up there was low 70’s all day, while it was still over 90 here when we got home just after 8PM.
Good morning, Vagabonds.
Mark, it is nice to be missed.
Friday we drove 250 miles up to Ely (pronounced e-lee) in Northern Nevada to spend the night. Yesterday, we spent the day at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum (www.nnry.com). We had a blast! The museum is located at an old train yard (built in 1906) that was the hub of copper mining in Nevada. It has multiple tracks, an equipment barn for the locomotives and all sorts of other neat stuff you would want to see in a train yard. And the best part is that most of the equipment there was actually used in that yard. There are a few pieces of equipment that were purchased or donated from other locations, but not much.
We also rode the excursion train, Locomotive #40 pulling a coal tender, a dining car, a passenger car, a flatbed observation car and a caboose. #40 was built in either 1909 or 1910 (they have two and one of them turned 100 years old in 2009 and one a year later, don’t know which was which) and is a 4-6-0 coal powered steam engine. The other engine is #93 and she is a 2-8-0 and is also coal powered. #93 was recently completely rebuilt and is usually the engine used for these excursions, so we got lucky to be pulled by #40.
Just the chug-chug sound of the engine was exciting! It is something you hear on sound tracks, but rarely for real any more. The flatbed observation car had another “advantage” – coal cinders flying all over in the smoke – fortunately not hot by the time it got back to the flatbed. I was picking tiny bits of coal out of my hair for quite a while. And as usual, I forgot my camera.
The number designation indicates how many pilot or lead wheels, drive wheels and trailing wheels on a steam engine. The pilot wheels are usually on a “truck” in the front so they can pivot a bit going around curves and the trailing wheels (when they exist – they don’t on either of these two engines) are under the engineer’s cab.
Forgive the jargon, but we had fun yesterday and I have to show off my brand new knowledge. We drove back yesterday afternoon. Both ways were a very nice drive. Sunset on the desert can be very spectacular.
The weather up there was low 70’s all day, while it was still over 90 here when we got home just after 8PM.