Western Railroad Discussion > What is going on with the Nevada Northern at Shafter, N

I drove thru Shafter, NV last Saturday (May 30, 2009) afternoon and was surprised to see some track machines including a tamper and a ballast regulator on the Nevada Northern tracks. Shafter is about 8 miles south of I-80 on a dirt road between Wendover and Wells, NV and is (or was) the interchange with the UP (ex-WP). The tracks are still intact (more or less) south to Ely and less so north to Cobre which was the interchange with ex-SP. At first I thought that it was just some machines that the UP had pushed out of the way but when I looked closer, the machines were obviously did not belong to the UP and there were signs that the ballast regulator had been run south down the track a ways and the switches had been oiled and there were several cans of new spikes near the tracks.

1. The tamper is freshly painted and striped but not new.

2. The second picture shows the machines including a small new Caterpillar wheel tractor and the general setting.

3. Looking south down the track at the rain and occasional lightning.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/09 19:28 by sdrake.

---

---

---

4. It will take more than a ballast regulator and a tamper to fix the track on this siding.

I drove back thru there Sunday mid afternoon and was even more surprised to find some one running the ballast regulator. The operator stopped and talked with me a few minutes. He was working for a company out of Washington and there were working on the tracks heading south. He thought that they were going to eventually go all the way to the mine south of Ely but maybe they were only fixing up the track so UP could use it for car storage. He told me that they were going all the way to the mine but he also was not sure of the timing and told me that he just worked there. So I was left not really knowing what was going on. There did use the track to haul concentrate from Ely to Shafter about 10 years ago (1999) but apparently found it cheaper to haul it by truck as the tracks were in such poor condition that it took 2 or 3 days to make a round trip. There was a possibility (and may still be a slim possibility) that a coal fired power plant would be built near Cherry Creek north of Ely. If that happened the tracks would be upgraded and used to haul in the coal.

5. A picture down the track looking at the (slowly) approaching regulator.

6. Another closer shot of the regulator.

---

---

---

Huh.. that kinda looks like Warren whom does some of our track work at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. At least the ballast regulator !

That's quite a sunkink in #4... The last time I was through Cobre (about 1 1/2 years ago) the track had been paved over at the grade crossing south of Cobre on the highway leading from I-80 to Montello.

Perhaps getting ready to open Ely to Shafter again

mojaveflyer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's quite a sunkink in #4... The last time I
> was through Cobre (about 1 1/2 years ago) the
> track had been paved over at the grade crossing
> south of Cobre on the highway leading from I-80 to
> Montello.

Yes, the tracks are paved over at the highway south of Cobre and unless you know where to look, the tracks are completely buried in the brush. Also the US 93 grade crossing in Currie (about halfway between Shafter and Ely) was paved over too...this was about three or four months ago.

Wouldn't surprise me that the NN has figured that using this line to store cars for UP or TTX can create some cash flow at minimum cost. Certainly seems to be plenty of cars looking for a temporary home.

JBWX

Yeah, car storage would be my guess, too. Makes sense.

Joe McMillan

Go to this web site and click on "At The Throttle". Then go to "Track Rehabillitation" and it'll tell you what's happening.

nevadanorthernrailway.net

You need all this rehab to store cars?

WAF Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You need all this rehab to store cars?

Well, you do if you want to be able to retrieve them without jacks, blocking and a sideboom.

There's also the fact that most lessors are pretty fussy about wanting their cars stored ON the tracks...

NZ

dash944cw Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Go to this web site and click on "At The
> Throttle". Then go to "Track Rehabillitation" and
> it'll tell you what's happening.
>
> nevadanorthernrailway.net

Mark's article talks about rebuilding the south end from Hiline Junction to McGill Junction. They are also working on plans to restore the McGill station. I believe the hope is to be able to run tourist trains to McGill.

But all that activity is a long way from Shafter. Any work on the mainline between McGill Juntion and Shafter depends on some combination of traffic potential (power plants, whatever) and money (government or private), and when that happens we're talking about new ties and rail for coal trains most likely. And don't let the relatively heavy rail in the picture fool you. The interchange tracks were laid with something like 90 pound rail to accomodate the heavier engines of the WP, you don't don't go far down the NN before you find a set a compromise joints and the NN mainline reverts to the original (I think) 70 poound rail laid in 1905. Which is why it took the Northern Nevada and BHP three days to make a roundtrip hauling 100 ton cars over 70 pound rail VERY VERY slowly, and why it is unlikely the NN will again haul concentrates, unless the railroad is upgraded for the power plants.

So that's why I suspect they're getting ready to store cars, about the only thing old 70 pound rail is good for. Probably the biggest issue is just getting ride of the stagebrush.

The real issue is, what is the status of the power plants?

JBWX

jbwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> dash944cw Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Go to this web site and click on "At The
> > Throttle". Then go to "Track Rehabillitation"
> and
> > it'll tell you what's happening.
> >
> > nevadanorthernrailway.net
>
> Mark's article talks about rebuilding the south
> end from Hiline Junction to McGill Junction. They
> are also working on plans to restore the McGill
> station. I believe the hope is to be able to run
> tourist trains to McGill.
>
> But all that activity is a long way from Shafter.
> Any work on the mainline between McGill Juntion
> and Shafter depends on some combination of traffic
> potential (power plants, whatever) and money
> (government or private), and when that happens
> we're talking about new ties and rail for coal
> trains most likely. And don't let the relatively
> heavy rail in the picture fool you. The
> interchange tracks were laid with something like
> 90 pound rail to accomodate the heavier engines of
> the WP, you don't don't go far down the NN before
> you find a set a compromise joints and the NN
> mainline reverts to the original (I think) 70
> poound rail laid in 1905. Which is why it took the
> Northern Nevada and BHP three days to make a
> roundtrip hauling 100 ton cars over 70 pound rail
> VERY VERY slowly, and why it is unlikely the NN
> will again haul concentrates, unless the railroad
> is upgraded for the power plants.
>
> So that's why I suspect they're getting ready to
> store cars, about the only thing old 70 pound rail
> is good for. Probably the biggest issue is just
> getting ride of the stagebrush.
>
> The real issue is, what is the status of the power
> plants?
>
> JBWX

Here is the web site in clickable form:

http://nevadanorthernrailway.net/throttle/throttle071608.htm

Apparently, the short term goal is car storage which probably implies relatively minor rehabilitation for several miles and what there was doing at least when I was there was clearing the brush off the sides of the track. Because it is so dry, the brush does not grow that fast. But they did have some new spikes and the tamper. I thought that the track looked fairly light once you got onto the Nevada Northern proper. The turnoff from the UP is up to modern standards. Maybe, I will be able to get out there agian in a few weeks and update what is happening. If they could get the speed up to where they could run up and back in a day or maybe even 2 days instead of 3, it might be worth moving the concentrate by rail instead of trucking it to Wendover where it is loaded onto rail cars. There is a fair tonnage of this material being moved.

Apparently the power plants are on hold and not looking that good at the moment. I do not follow Nevada politics but apparently Harry Reid spoke out against the use of coal power and is not very popular in Ely for this and probably other reasons.

Sam Drake



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/09 09:00 by sdrake.

Great Western Railway in Colorado had worse track than this and stored several hundred USLX boxcars in the 80s without incident ( you don't think Pete Ascher would spend money to align the track, do you?)

Harry Reid is also not very popular in Nevada in general and is trailing badly in any effort for re-election.
As such the power plants could take a sudden turn though a construction start would still be some time
after permitting.