Nostalgia & History > Back when in Boulder City, Nev.

Back when I was kid in Boulder City, Nev. during the 1950s trains were scarce. After Hoover Dam was completed in the 30s, traffic dropped off to nearly nothing, but the branch from Vegas to Boulder and the government track down to the dam remained in place "in case" for many years. Customers were only the city water purification plant up in town near my house and an oil dealer out at the yard. On extremely rare occasions we were treated to special moves. One was a sheep movement and the other was pipe for a pipeline. I posted pix of those moves here on TO some time back. So with only a one or two-car train or so a month going beyond the odoriferous chemical plants in Henderson to reach Boulder City, I had to make do with photographing anything that happened to catch my eye as I roamed the lonely yard.

Photo one was obvious, the depot. Looking at it from the yard, the depot sat down on a lower level from the yard and was reached by a switchback (right). In those days the depot still had an agent who was good for a UP calendar each year. Sadly after I left Boulder City for college, "thieves" stole my depot and moved it to the other side of Railroad Pass to Henderson, home of our hated rivals at Basic High.

Photo two was an ancient wooden bunk car. I have no idea what it was doing there. I never saw any MOW work done on the Boulder branch or the yard in my home town yard. I thought the car looked "kinda neat" though and snapped its picture.

Photo three is a puzzle. This as I recall, was a derail on the main into town to keep any loose cars from rolling free back to Vegas on their own. This view looks toward Boulder City with one of the iconic water tanks for the town in the distance. The "S" on the target I assume means spring. I don't recall ever seeing another spring derail like this anywhere since then. I was charmed by the switch lamp. I assume the agent kept it lit. He had to have something to help him pass the time...

John Bromley

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nice shots.is the "new" depot in the same area as the old one in your pictures?

I don't know. I haven't seen the tourist train set up, but judging from pictures I've seen of the Nevada Southern site it looks like their depot is "up" on the bench with the original yard. The old depot sat down below the yard on the same level as Nevada Highway. The depot was at the extreme end of the yard (the edge of town in those days).
JB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/15 06:25 by Copy19.