V&T Railway: Getting on track

The steam engine that will pull the V&T tourist train between Carson City and Virginia City finally arrived in Nevada Tuesday - by flatbed trailer.

"It's taken longer than anticipated but everything's coming together," said V&T Commission Chairman Dwight Millard after the steam engine was safely on the tracks where it will begin work next month.

The McLeod River Railroad engine was purchased seven years ago. It was rented out the past few years to a tourist train operation in Oakdale, Calif.

Now that the tracks extend from Virginia City to Mound House and across Highway 50, members of the commission said it was time to bring the engine to its new home.

It goes to work officially Aug. 14, transporting dignitaries to Virginia City from the Eastgate Siding just inside the Carson City line.

That will kick off the Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau Rail Fest celebration. The train will carry its first paying customers Aug. 15-16 then continue to provide tourist rides on Saturdays this summer and fall through Nevada Day.

V&T Commissioner Ken Allen has worked nearly 20 years to restore the Virginia & Truckee line, originally built to haul timber and supplies to Virginia City and gold ore back down the hill.

Allen said the No. 18 locomotive, an oil-fired steam engine rated to haul 100 tons, cost the commission $420,000 in 2002. Taylor Heavy Hauling of Sacramento charged another $10,000 to bring it from Oakdale to Carson City over the past two days.

Along the way, No. 18 drew a lot of attention. Dozens of spectators pulled over to take pictures with their cell phones just in the final 10 miles of the journey.

Once at Eastgate Siding off Flint Drive, crews used a switch engine and flatbed rail car to ease the locomotive gently down a short ramp onto the tracks that will now be its home.

Millard said he believes the train will be a huge tourist draw once it begins regular service.

"It's going to be successful for the whole region," he said, adding that it will be a great marketing tool for area casinos and convention centers.

Once the train starts running on a regular schedule, he said, it will be easier to raise money to add amenities to the project. Among those amenities is either a "Y" shaped turn-around or a turntable to reverse the engine's direction. Until then, the locomotive will face forward on the trip up the mountain but backward on the way down.

Project Engineer Ken Dorr said work began Monday on the next section of track, which will take the train into the most beautiful part of the trip - Brunswick Canyon above the Carson River. That phase will end with reconstruction of Eureka Siding in the canyon.

When completed, however, the train will go all the way down the hill to the outskirts of Carson City itself - a 17-mile trip. Plans call for a depot along Drako Way just off Highway 50.