Steam & Excursion > Inside "The Great Stone Fort" - Virginia & Truckee #12!

The date is June 5, 1938 and the V&T is sponsoring an excursion to Virginia City that day with V&T #11 and #27. When the special from Reno arrived in Carson City and as the #11 was added for the climb to Virginia City, the railfans were allowed to enter the huge stone enginehouse/shops of the V&T known as "The Great Stone Fort".

The huge structure took up an entire city block in downtown Carson City, Nevada. Tucked away in it's many stalls were the ancient locomotives and wooden passenger cars that the V&T had held on to even after they pieces of rolling stock were retired from service. Among the locomotives sitting inside on this June day was V&T #12 the Genoa as we see here in this fine photo taken by Guy L. Dunscomb.

IN just a couple of years, the Hollywood Studios would learn of these ancient relics of Railroading's golden years and they would buy up several of the engine and cars for use in the Western Movies that were becoming popular.

However on this spring day in 1938 the V&T collection was complete and intact still. The railfans on this trip were treated to a rare glimpse into "the attic" of the Silver Shortline.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/13 05:15 by LoggerHogger.

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Cool photo!

Steve Mitchell
http://www.yardgoatimages.com

The V&T was truly a treasure and a window into the past.

I wonder if any of those wooden roof structures ever caught fire from the ash output of those old steamers.

Not totally OT, Martin, do you know how the V&T 4-6-0 No. 20, "Tahoe," made it to the Pennsylvania State RR museum?