Steam & Excursion > Even On Very The Day Of Abandonment The Crew Still Carries On!

Few railroads in the Country have such a colorful history as the Silver Shortline, the Virginia & Truckee Railroad.  This famous little shortline even made abandonment look spectacular.

The date was Saturday June 4, 1938.  The V&T had partitioned some weeks earlier for the abandonment of the line from Carson City, Nevada to Virginia City but had not heard back yet on the petition.  The shop crews at the huge stone roundhouse in Carson City were polishing up 2 of the classic brass-banded steamers for the big railfan excursion to be run the next day on the V&T when word came that there was a load of concentrate that needed to be hauled to Gold Hill that afternoon.

Visiting from the Bay Area was railfan Ted Wurm who took this fine view.  He had family in Carson City and was known to the crews of the V&T since he visited the line often.  They asked young Ted if he wanted to go along on this trip as as student brakeman.  Without hesitation Ted said "Yes!" and off they went behind V&T #11.

After dropping the load at Gold Hill the crew ran #11 the last couple miles up to Virginia City where they turned the engine on the Virginia City turntable and then stopped to water her up as we see here.  That is engineer Grover Russel on the ground checking the running gear while fireman Harold Brooks fills the tender.  Conductor Bill Wise is on the pilot waiting to depart down the hill and back to Carson City.

When the crew arrived back in Carson City they learned from the General Manager that the petition to abandon the same Virginia City Line they had just traveled over had been approved and they had just run the very last freight ever to be hauled on that line.

There was not time tor reflect on all this, they still had an excursion to run the next day.  The signifigance of all this would set in soon enough.

Martin

P.S.  I do not know the story behind the young girl in the fireman's seat.  I wish I did.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/16 08:18 by LoggerHogger.

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Thank you for the story behind the photo.

Thanks, Martin.  Yet another great posting.  I believe that Grover Russell was Ted Wurm's uncle, but am not positive of that.

Calendar material.

What are the chances of running an actual V&T locomotive on the current V&T?

Posted from Android

I believe original V + T locos run at the RR museum in Carson city.  It's only  about 6-7 miles east to the newly-reconstructed V + T line, so it seems doable to me if one was trucked over there.  I think the original + T  locos would not handle enough excursion cars to be worth wile, however?

There isn't enough space on TO servers to go into all the fine "Nevada" politics that are entailed between the V&T Commission and the State Division of Museums.

The "polite" answer is "no".

Pullman Wrote:
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> There isn't enough space on TO servers to go into
> all the fine "Nevada" politics that are entailed
> between the V&T Commission and the State Division
> of Museums.
>
> The "polite" answer is "no".

Truer words were never spoken!

SV

Some of which were discussed at near gunpoint.

Out

None of the locomotives at the museum are FRA as I understand...so, they cannot run on the revived V&T.

Nice photo, even if the story is a bit sad.  Still kills me that they tore down the stone engine house in Carson City.  

Nathan