Nostalgia & History > Necro Fluggenphoamin Montello, NV

Montello was the result of the Lucin Trestle going into service and the mainline bypassing Terrace, UT.  The Terrace facility was moved RR east to Montello and, while they we at it, Toano was closed too and combined.  The operation at Montello wasn't as extensive as it had been in Terrace and didn't include all the engine shops.  Montello was a bit unusual in that there never was a turntable (I messed up and forgot to shoot a photo of it- oops), so the roundhouse wasn't particularly round.  Also, I guess the T&E crews seriously didn't want to live in in Montello so they worked 4 day trips between Ogden and Carlin only laying "overnight" here.  Wives were grateful.

Photo 1.  Looking RR east.  The dark line curving through the house tracks is a road over to some houses off camera to the right.
Photo 2.  I noticed this milepost marker someone re-purposed.  MP 671 was about 10mi east of town, so I guess it was a desert find, maybe tossed aside when the UP changed all the mileage points.
Photo 3.  Breakfast at The Cowboy Bar & Cafe under the Montello station sign.  Is it real?  Cleaned up a bit much, but I think so.
SR

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When did Montello close up shop, so to speak?

EO
And what kind of wildlife crawled out of that hole in the Naugahyde while you were having your eggs?

The Cowboy Bar still serves a good burger - just takes 'em a while to cook it up.

​Some fascinating country out there on the old SP...

​Heard a story once from an Ogden (ex-SP) railroader that when Anschutz owned the railroad in the early 1990s, the crews running to Carlin got an extra basic day on top of the regular miles for running through Montello, even though the town had been run through many years before that. Some pretty good crew contracts on the SP/RG during that time, but wiped out rather quickly after Uncle Pete took things over 20 years ago.

BoilingMan wrote:

> Montello was the result of the Lucin Trestle going into service and the mainline bypassing Terrace, UT.  The Terrace facility was moved RR east to Montello and, while they we at it, Toano was closed too and combined.

As was mentioned in BoilingMan's post of 9/20, "Central Pacific's roundhouse in Terrace," Toano was closed as a terminal well before the construction of the Lucin Cutoff.

In that thread, I stated that an 1876 newspaper reported that Toano will be abandoned while Jeff Moore stated that Signor's Salt Lake Division book put the abandonment date as April 1, 1888.

I have some doubts about how accurate Signor's date is, by the way.
 

The little white building with the false front and Montello across the front was the Post Office when I went through... a really long time ago.

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> Photo 2.  I noticed this milepost marker someone re-purposed.  MP 671 was about 10mi east of town,
> so I guess it was a desert find, maybe tossed aside when the UP changed all the mileage points.

Don't think the UP ever changed the mileposts out there, so more than likely it was just replaced at some point. Still looks in pretty good paint for all the years of wild weather it has certainly seen.

ble692 Wrote:
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> Don't think the UP ever changed the mileposts out
> there, so more than likely it was just replaced at
> some point. Still looks in pretty good paint for
> all the years of wild weather it has certainly
> seen.

Really?  Where did they take up the slack?  I live at MP 156 on Donner Pass and I remember it used to be down the hill a ways.  I would think the renumbering would have simply been recalculated domino style all the way to Ogden.
SR

I believe the UP added 2 miles, at least over Donner

nyk Wrote:
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> The Cowboy Bar still serves a good burger - just
> takes 'em a while to cook it up.

The folks at the Cowboy were very friendly and even gracious when I ordered a salad for my dinner- protocol somewhat restored when I added a Bud and asked for one to go  (good save!).   I was asked where I was headed and when I said the old Terrace townsite, they looked at me blank.  No one in the place had ever heard of it-  they were sure I meant Tecoma (near Lucin).  How odd.   I described were it was as best I could.  Nothing!  But they'd noticed my muddied rental out front and gave me two numbers to call if (when) I needed to been saved from myself.  They promised they'd be staight out.
As I said: Nice folks.
SR

Thank you for the photo. We've been to Montello a couple of times. Nothing to write about. A good spot to watch w/e trains is 8 miles west of Montello, near the top of the grade over the Pequops at Tioga. You can see w/b passing through town and them climbing the grade to you. It was double-track when I last was there, but I think I read one track was pulled out by Moyers for use on the Sunset Route.

TonyJ Wrote:
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> Thank you for the photo. We've been to Montello a
> couple of times. Nothing to write about. A good
> spot to watch w/e trains is 8 miles west of
> Montello, near the top of the grade over the
> Pequops at Tioga. You can see w/b passing through
> town and them climbing the grade to you. It was
> double-track when I last was there, but I think I
> read one track was pulled out by Moyers for use on
> the Sunset Route.

Still two tracks, Tony

I was headed from Reno to Ogden one day, not in a real hurry and decided to take the short cut through
Montello. Sure, about fifty miles up the road they put curves in the road just to keep you interested! Not
a recommended short cut. As to Montello, makes Lovelock look like a real town!

Out

I could have been from Montello except....

My dad got a teaching contract in 1942 for the Montello School and headed west with my mom and older brother David.  They got to Montello, which I figure was pretty active back then. but found that it was a railroad town with electricity provided by an SP generator that was turned off a some point in the evening.  Mom said NO!  and they kept heading west to Salem where her mom lived.  Dad got a job teaching in Salem and the rest is history.  

Knowing this story, I had to go see Montello myself on a trip to Nevada and Ely in 2002; that took all of 10 minutes!

BoilingMan Wrote:
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> Really?  Where did they take up the slack?  I live at MP 156 on Donner Pass and I remember it used to be down the hill a ways.  I would think
> the renumbering would have simply been recalculated domino style all the way to Ogden.

​The milepost equation is at Vista (east end of Sparks) where the two mains go into the single main.

​UP Roseville Sub milepost 247.19 = UP Nevada Sub milepost 249.40

callum_out Wrote:
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> I was headed from Reno to Ogden one day, not in a
> real hurry and decided to take the short cut
> through
> Montello. Sure, about fifty miles up the road they
> put curves in the road just to keep you
> interested! Not
> a recommended short cut. As to Montello, makes
> Lovelock look like a real town!
>
> Out

I went that way too. No shortcut

> I
> > read one track was pulled out by Moyers for use
> on
> > the Sunset Route.
>
> Still two tracks, Tony

Thank you for the update. - Tony J.