The V&T's McCloud River Railroad engine No. 18 sits on the newly completed tracks at Eastgate Siding along the Lyon County-Carson City line. Geoff Dornan/Nevada Appeal
CARSON CITY, Nev. – Virginia & Truckee Railway officials have planned to run the first train over rebuilt tracks between Carson City and Virginia City Aug. 14, the Associated Press has reported. The train will mark the first rail trip between the two cities since 1938, when the original V&T was abandoned.
The 12.8-mile line, built mostly on the abandoned grade of the old V&T, aims to draw tourists to an area of Nevada that doesn’t see many. The first train will run after 17 years of lobbying and fund raising to make the rebuilt $55 million reconstruction project a reality.
Dwight Millard, chairman of the commission and the Carson City Convention and Visitor’s Bureau said he expects 80,000 riders next year, with more than 100,000 in future years. The riders could bring more than $10 million to Northern Nevada each year in tourism and gambling revenue, according to the commission’s Web site.
The trips that will begin next month will take about an hour. The railroad plans another four miles of track, to be completed in two years, that will take passengers closer to the center of Carson City.
V&T was a mine-haul railroad and shipped silver ore prior to its shutdown.
The former McLeod River Railroad engine, No.18, was purchased seven years ago and finally arrived in Nevada Tuesday — by flatbed trailer. It was rented out the past few years by the tourist train operation in Oakdale, Calif. The 1914 Baldwin built locomotive, is an oil-fired steam engine rated to haul 100 tons that will pull the V&T tourist train between Carson City and Virginia City.
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.
The next section of track to be added to the tourist line 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.
For more on Nevada train rides, visit www.scenicrailexcursions.com/nevada_trainrides.php
