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Nevada Northern Winter Photo Freight Day Two 12/5/2004

After a few quick snacks, the three of us (Don Roe slept in) drove back to the East Ely yard for the morning photo shoot. Sitting out in front of the engine house was Nevada Northern 2-8-0 93.

Next the crew brought the engine out three times, reversing it in and out; I took pictures the first time and watched the second one as it just fantastic to watch a steam engine at work.

The third time was absolutely excellent. The smell and sounds of steam in 2004! You have to love it!

Proceeding down towards the coaling tower.

A second photo runby of the same event.

Nevada Northern 93 in front of the coaling tower.

A tractor then loaded the tender with coal for the day.

Nevada Northern Railway Museum MRS-1 B-2081, nee United States Army B-2081 built by American Locomotive Comany in 1953. We returned to Don's vehicle and drove to the east end of the yard where Don wanted some car pictures.

While we were there, the steam engine proceeded to the wye to turn for the last Polar Express of the weekend.

Nevada Northern 93 reversing around the wye.

With everyone happy, we stopped at the White Pine County Museum for Kennecott Copper steeple cab 80 built by General Electric in 1937. The three of us returned to the hotel before the four of us walked to the Silver State for a great breakfast then it was back to the hotel for a little football before our last event of this weekend.

The Nevada Northern East Ely station built in 1907.

We drove back to the station as the last Polar Express of the weekend was returning.

Nevada Northern 93 would soon cut off, be wyed and go to the engine house for water before our next train.

Nevada Northern SD9 204, ex. Progress Rail Service 1995, exx. Southern Pacific 4426 1977, exxx. Southern Pacific 3942 1965, nee Southern Pacific 5468 built by General Motors in 1956. It was purchased by the Nevada Northern Railway in 1996, was making up our mixed train. The final consist would be Nevada Northern 93 pushing three un-numbered box cars, ore cars 1005, 089, 1082, 1219, 400, 402 and 403, tank car W5 and coach 5.

Passengers boarded coach 5, which was divided with a men's section with black leather seats at one end and a women's section with red velvet seats at the other; a door separates the two sections. We sat in the 21st Century women's section with those nice red seats. The car was unheated but body warmth and sunlight warmed it up nicely. Nevada Northern 93 returned to the rear of our mixed train and minutes later, started pushing our train east at 12:50 PM. We passed the wye and Carl noted that at 12:54 PM, I was starting my new mileage. We crossed the road crossings and soon were out of town.

Once past the last grade crossing, we train stopped before the curve for Photo Runby one.

Photo runby two at the same location.

Photo runby three.

The train continued to Moser for photo runby four.

Photo runby five.

Photo runby six at Moser.

The junction with the line to used to go Cobre on the Southern Pacific and Shafter on the Western Pacific. A future route for me to ride, but that line only now goes as far as Shafter.

As we had reversed up the High Line, we stopped at MP H1.5 for photo runby seven.

Photo runby eight.

The third and last photo runby nine at MP H1.5.

Nevada Northern 93 continued to reverse us to MP H2, where photo runbys ten and eleven occured.

Photo runby twelve was near Lavon.

Photo runby thirteen was further up the High Line, after which photo runby 14 occured, but clouds came over.

The view before Nevada Northern 93 reversed the train to the big cut.

A posed picture here.

Photo runby 15. I watched the next two runbys as the sun popped out of the clouds. Seeing steam in the winter is a fantastic experience!

Nevada Northern 93 pulled our mixed train back to MP H5 for the last three runbys of the day; this was the eighteenth.

Photo runby nineteen.

Photo runby twenty was just before sunset and the last one of our weekend.

A special thank you to Gordon Osmundsen, who was in charge of photo stops and the Nevada Northern crews for putting on a first-class show the whole weekend. We returned to East Ely after sunset but a nice twilight ride and everyone was raving about what a great winter steam railroading weekend it was. We all enjoyed our visit to the Nevada Northern and said goodbye to our new friends before we all went our separate ways.

The four of us went to Arby's for dinner before returning to the hotel for the rest of the evening. I wrote the rest of the story up to this point as Carl and I watched "Laura Croft, Tomb Raider" then Storm Stories on the Weather Channel with the 1979 record snows in Chicago, which was fascinating. We called it a night and had a good sleep in preparation for the long journey home.

We awoke at 4:00 AM and left the hotel at 4:45 AM, retracing our route up, minus the detour to Boulder City. We stopped at the Alamo truck stop for breakfast, where I enjoyed pancakes and sausage then drove through Las Vegas, encountering traffic for the first time on this trip. As we left Sin City, the traffic thinned out and we stopped at Primm for petrol before continuing down the highway into California. Don Drummer brought two Christmas music tapes and wee first listened to the Boston Pops most of the way to Barstow but started the Frank Yankovic tape "Christmas Memories" as we arrived. Love those polkas! We ate at Toms Mega Burger and I enjoyed the Hot Dog Special and once again, watched freight trains as we ate. Back on the road, we crested Cajon Pass and returned to Placentia, where I said goodbye to the other three before taking surface streets home, ending a great trip on both the Nevada Southern and Nevada Northern. What a fantastic weekend it was!

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