DS&RG History

DS&RG History The Birth of the DS&RG Desert Springs & Rattler Gap Railroad ~ Any connection to the truth, is completely a mistake on my part. As I wrote this history of the DS&RG, I used some real place and location names, but only to give a feel of being.

Written 10 April 1999 ~ It all began, when a big, blond, bearded man, rode his horse past the Ponderosa ranch, on the shores of Lake Tahoe, high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He saw men cutting trees for timbers, needed for the great silver mines in Virginia City. The logs were either hauled on small wagons built for the job, or drug by oxen down the miles of steep trails to the Carson Valley mills below. ~ The year was 1873, and the spring air was refreshing, as this man and his horse made their way down the mountain. It did not take this big man long to find a job, in fact he took on all jobs that he could find. Working many hours a day, he hoarded the money he made. People never saw him mad, though he was never one to do much talking, always with a smile for those he passed, though he could make a mule skinner blush when he swore. The locals never heard his name, so they started to refer to him as Tiny. ~ How Tiny found time to build a house on 50 acres of land he had homesteaded, out in Desert Springs, no one knows. The land was being covered with old machines, old rusty track, used ties, and various parts from a abandoned railroad in the desert. This went on for five years, He never seemed to rest. One day, a rumor was going around, that someone, had been quietly buying land. From near the Ponderosa ranch in the Sierra, along the Carson River, out through the desert to Fort Churchill. Some fool they guessed! ~ This rumor was made fact one day, when some loggers coming down a newly made, easy grade. Tiny and a good sized indian were spiking used, rusty rail to old ties, which were being laid in a nice curve down the fresh surveyed grade by a dozen Paiute indian braves. Tiny only stopped long enough to wave to the loggers, he was sending the spikes home with two quick swings. ~ Tiny had made friends with the Paiute Indians one winter. He had helped out with food when the snows made hunting near impossible. The Paiute braves were good workers and had been working for Tiny for some time now. The grade had been surveyed, and graded, without anyone taking notice. The rails were stretching out to the valley below. ~ As the rail crew made their way across the valley to the Carson river, the first switch was laid. The switch was the link to the famous Virginia & Truckee Railroad, not to mention the link to the Central Pacific Railroad and the rest of the world . The owners of the V&T, had sent a track crew out to help with that switch. Keeping the down time of a very busy railroad to a minimum. From here, both crews went to Mound House and put in another switch, this one in the bottom of the Carson Canyon. The tracks from this second switch, went east, along the river, out into the Nevada desert. ~ The V&T owners has seen the new Railroad as a blessing, they had about all the traffic their equipment could handle. This new railroad would give some help and make more money for them at the same time. So they had made an agreement with Tiny to let him have track rights to the V&T. ~ About a week later, a very special Central Pacific RR train came into the V&T Carson City yards. People stopped what they were doing, and either followed the train into the yards, or stood with mouths agape. On a flat car was a old steam engine, needing paint and a lot of care. on the following flatcar, was a tender which also need much work and care. ~ The engine, a 4-6-0, had been bought from a Oregon logging outfit, and the tender had been bought from the Central Pacific. Tiny and his Paiute indian crew helped unload both pieces. The tender was connected to the engine and filled with water and oil. Soon a trail of smoke could be seen coming from the stack. To Tiny, this was the final high pass to cross, to owning his own railroad. He had worked for years for this crowning moment. Now! the Desert Springs & Rattler Gap Railroad Was not just a dream! ~ After a test run to make sure all was ok with this old steam belching beast, He would run the engine to the small yard on his property, in Desert Springs. Early the next morning a crew of the new DS&RG got the engine steamed up and coupled to a waiting train. The first train of the DS&RG was going to be a empty log train, heading to the ridge of Spooner Pass to a log loading dock. ~ The year was 1881 ~ This railroad ran logs trains down the mountain to the sawmill in Washoe Valley, extra passenger trains for the V&T, connected to the Carson & Colorado RR a year later. US Mail was one of the first contracts signed, and freight hauled, of such variety, not to be listed. ~~~ This Was Not The END!

To The Switch Yard