Steam & Excursion > Things Were Much Quieter In This Town's Yards Then Years Earlier!

All across the West there have been boom towns that have sprung up over the years.  Some of these boom towns were successful enough to warrant their own railroads to be built to service them during their heydays. 

In the early West, it was the discovery of precious metals that often led to mining boom towns and later a railroad to carry the ore out.  Such was the case with Virginia City, Nevada and the Silver Boom that she created which led to the building of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad.

By the 1930's when this photo was taken, things had quieted down and slowed down in Virginia City.  Sure V&T's brass polished 4-4-0 #11 shown at the end of tracks still sparkled in the desert sunlight when she visited the railroads namesake town, but the hustle and bustle of earlier years was long gone.  All that was left were a few small loads of ore that only needed to be picked up a couple times a week  This was a far cry from the nearly 30 trains that the town saw in the boom years of the 1870's.

Gone were the crowds of passengers disembarking from the long passenger trains of years gone past.  So quiet was the town now, that the passenger shed that was built to protect the passenger cars from the blistering sun rarely if ever, was used again.  All that remained were a handful of local men who hug out in the shade of the freight depot as #11 slowly switches the yards before making her return to Carson City.

All to soon, even this scene would fade away, when #11 would make her final run to Virginia City in June 1938 on a railfan excursion.  Then, 3 years later, the scrapper would make the last trip to Virginia City with V&T #25 to pull up the track and leave the once boom town with one less reminder of better days.

Martin



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/19 04:48 by LoggerHogger.

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That is some really light rail!

Tom

UP3806 Wrote:
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> That is some really light rail!
>
> Tom

Trains were really light back then.

Great photo, it's a shame how much of the V&T was lost.  I remember visiting Viriginia City on a family trip, pretty cool place.

Nathan