A historic photo of The Glenbrook at Lake Tahoe platform.
Restoration of the historic 1875 steam locomotive “The Glenbrook” has been recognized with an international award from the Association of Tourist Railroads and Railway Museums. The narrow gauge engine at the Nevada State Museum, Carson City debuted in May following 30 years of painstaking care to bring it back to authentic and historic condition, thanks to a generous grant from the E.L. Wiegand Foundation.
“The Glenbrook is such a noteworthy and rare piece of rolling stock. We wanted to recognize this as a significant and major restoration,” said Aaron Isaacs, a historian at the Minnesota Streetcar Museum and awards committee chair for the group, which represents museums in North America. “This is one of only two winners selected. We considered more than 40 projects done this year and we chose the Glenbrook because it stood above the others.”
“This kind of unexpected acknowledgement of our museum is really an honor for everyone on our team. It helps us tell our story to people from around the world who will come here to see The Glenbrook, alongside its standard gauge companion piece, The Inyo,” said Peter Barton, administrator for the Nevada Division of Museums and History.
The Glenbrook took its first run in more than 90 years at the May 23 dedication ceremony. It first came to Nevada in 1875 and worked to haul lumber from Lake Tahoe sawmills to Spooner Summit. In 1898, it became the power of a tourist railroad between Truckee and Tahoe City. By 1943, it was saved from scrap and donated by the Bliss Family to the Nevada State Museum, where it pleased countless youngsters who crawled all over it outside the museum’s doors on Carson Street.
The Glenbrook’s full history is featured in the May/June issue of Nevada Magazine.