This June, the Nevada Northernn Railway Museum in Ely, NV will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the railroad. The line, built between the copper mines west of Ely and Shafter, NV, opened in 1906 (originally the northern interchange was with SP at Cobre until the Western Pacific was built). The NN would ship ore from the mines around Ruth east through Ely to the smelter at McGill, then ship the finished copper north to the SP and WP. When Kennecott ceased operation in 1983, the line became quite, but opened again when BHP bought the mines (the smelter was demolished in the early 1980s), shipping the enriched ore north. Decreasing copper prices caused BHP to shut down the mining operation once again in 1999, moving all mining to South America. What was left was a well-preserved shop and yard complex in Ely. On weekend mornings an excursion run, behind 1906-built Alco 2-8-0 93, goes up the grade behind Ely, through a tunnell, and uphill to Keystone, just east of Ruth. In the afternoon, an Alco RS3 diesel (the 109, still in KCC orange) or an SD9 (blue & yellow, painted by BHP) will handle the train on the so-called Higl Line to Adverse, literally up the side of the mountain from McGill and a route for the ore trains. Steam, diesel and electric locomotives, as well as vintage wooden freight cars, can be found on the property. When I live in Ely 2 years ago the shop crews let me look around the inside of the shop, which holds not only the 93 but 4-6-0 40 (being repaired), 2-8-0 81, RS2 (diesel) 104, a Baldwin switcher, and a steam-=powered rotary plow. Another building houses a steam crane and two steeplecab electric freight motors. Ely, to be honest, is a bit remote (OK, a lot remote), but sits in the scenic Steptoe Valley in eastern Nevada. There are several places to stay in Ely, and most of the hotels also have casinos (one popular place is the Hotel Nevada, which also has an awesome steak-and-egg breakfast). The community is 240 miles from either Salt Lake City or Las Vegas. For more information on the events scheduled to take place June 11 to June 13 this year, visit the Nevada Northern Railway Museum . It is WELL worth the trip should you go.
Nice web site! Was able to find some information that I'd been seeking for several years. Has this link been submitted to RailSeek? Boxcab E50
Friscobob- Thanks much for writing that up. Got a few quick corrections and additions to make... The northern terminus of the road was always at Cobre, which was Spanish for Copper. A little history...when the mines in Ely were first contemplated, the people behind the project were also behind the narrow gauge Eureka & Palisade, which ran from Eureka north to a connection with the SP at Palisade. The original plan was to convert the existing E&P to standard gauge and then extend it 75 miles to Ely. However, the line would involve crossing at least three major mountain summits, a project that would involve lots of expensive grading and provide the railroad with operational headaches for the life of the railroad. Instead, the backers incorporated the Nevada Northern and built the new line 150 miles north to a connection with the SP. The initial plan was to build into Wells, NV, but after some further evaluation the company opted to build up the other side of the Pequop mountains. The company established a new town at the SP interchange and was searching for a name for it when the son of one of the backers who had just returned from a trip to South America suggested the name Cobre, and it stuck. The NN had been in business for about two years when the Western Pacific completed it's mainline to Bewes (quickly re-named Shafter), giving the railroad two interchanges. The copper ore found in the mines above Ely is in the 2-3% range, meaning that one must mine 100 pounds of raw ore in order to recover 2 or 3 pounds of copper. The technology to profitably mine copper at these low concentrates was just becoming available at the time of the opening of the mines. The mines are located in the mountains west-southwest of the town, with no land or water available to build a smelter on. The company (Nevada Consolidated Copper Company) originally intended to build the smelter just north of Ely (on what is now East Ely), and they purchased land and water, only to discover that the City of Ely had priority water rights over the copper company, meaning that if the city needed the water in the future the copper company would be s-o-l. The company then purchased a ranch several miles north of Ely from a man named McGill (hence the name of the town), and the smelter was built there. Basic operations on the railroad saw the raw ore moving from the mines through Ely to the smelter at the rate of three to four hundred cars a day. The mine railroad was a 24-hour a day operation. The smelter would take all of that raw ore, and from that it would produce 3 or 4 cars a day of 99% pure "blister" copper, which would be shipped by rail to plants in the east for further refinement. For the first several years of the operation, the Nevada Northern handled the entire rail operation. However, at some point in the 1920's the mine to mill railroad was peddled to the copper company, and the Nevada Northern was left with just the mainline haul to the WP at Shafter and the SP at Cobre. The copper company (first Nevada Consolidated, the Kennecott) eventually excavated three huge open pits. At least one of the pits had a railroad that spiraled all the way down to the bottom of the pit, powered by a fleet of tank-type locomotives. The mine to smelter runs were handled by a fleet of Alco-built 2-8-0's. while the NN relied primarily on a pair of Baldwin 2-8-0's. The #40 was used on the passenger runs until 1941, when the trains were replaced by a subsidiary bus line that ran to Wells. The copper company also had a mile or two of electrified railroad that was entirely contained within the McGill smelter. The copper company dieselized with a fleet of Alco RS-2s and RS-3s, three Baldwin and one Alco switchers, and a GE 25-ton switcher. The Nevada Northern owned only one diesel, SD-7 #401, purchased new. When the smelter was built it was the largest single industrial facility anywhere in the state. However, by the late 1970's the smelter was old and outdated and was firmly in the sites of the Environmental Protection Agency. Kennecott spent millions trying to bring the facility into compliance with the new environmental restrictions, with no success. The problems with the smelter coupled with extremely depressed copper prices made the Ely operations unprofitable for Kennecott, and as noted the entire Ely operations were closed down in 1983. The operations sat for a few years, and by early 1985 Kennecott was scrapping the smelter and was accepting bids for scrapping the railroad. To make a long story short the City of Ely and White Pine County joined together to form the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, which received 32 miles of track, the East Ely shop complex, and most of the remaining equipment inventory from Kennecott. Three locomotives, a crane and crane tender, some ballast hoppers, and the entire mainline north of McGill Junction (about 120 miles) was sold to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which intended to build a coal fired power plant near Cherry Creek. These plans never came to fruition. There was off and on talk of restoring freight service to Ely, but nothing concrete. In 1993 Kennecott sold the mines to Magma Copper. Magma was determined to re-open the mines, but they were not interested in running a railroad. Magma contracted with Brian Whipple (creator of the Eureka Southern) to get a freight railroad going to serve the mines, and Whipple created the Northern Nevada Railroad to serve the mines. As noted the Smelter was gone, and to build a new smelter was out of the question, but Magma did have a modern smelter available at Magma, AZ, east of Phoenix on the San Manuel Arizona Railroad. Magma built a concentrator at the mines that produced ore that was about 40% copper. That ore was to be shipped in unit trains from Ely to Magma. However, Magma Copper was taken over by BHP before startup, and the resulting corporate reshuffling saw the Northern Nevada Railroad eliminated from the scene. BHP took over direct operation of the railroad themselves through BHP Nevada Rail. Everything was up and running by 1995. As noted, the Northern Nevada was organized by Brian Whipple, who created and ran the Eureka Southern Railroad from 1984 to 1986, when it went into bankruptcy. To power the new railroad Whipple purchased and moved in two ex-Santa Maria Valley GE 70-tonners and made a deal for two ex-military MRS-1s from the Portola Railroad Museum. One of the MRS-1s was painted into an orange and yellow that was very close to the paint used on the EUKA, but the Northern Nevada was erased from the picture before the units could be shipped from Portola. The MRS-1 that was painted for the Northern Nevada was the one sold to the Yreka Western last year...if anyone was wondering about the paint on that unit, that's where it came from. BHP Nevada Rail purchased five ex-SP SD-9s and moved an Alco RS-3 from the San Manuel Arizona to Ely to join the two 70-tonners inherited from the Northern Nevada. BHP Nevada Rail did not actually own any of the tracks they operated over, as trackage rights were obtained over the lines owned by both the museum and LADWP. BHP also only operated the line to Shafter, and the 20 miles of line north from there to Cobre was not re-activated. As noted, depressed copper prices caused BHP to suspend their operations in June 1999. Middle of last year saw BHP sell the Ely mines to Quatro Pro Mining, a British Columbia firm that expects to re-open the mines at some point in the near future, although as of yet they have not talked with the railroads yet. The other big development is that the City of Ely and White Pine County are in the final stages of buying the rest of the Nevada Northern mainline from LADWP, but a cloud has appeared on that prospect as a subsidiary of A&K Railroad Materials filed a condemnation lawsuit seeking to gain ownership of the old NN mainline. The NN is definately worth a visit. East Ely is one of only four places in the entire U.S. that you can see a complete steam era shop facility still intact in it's original location. There are still 1983 calendars up on the shop walls. It is an amazing place. Most of the mainline is still laid with the 60-pound rail rolled out in 1906. There are still a couple railroad buildings left in Currie, nothing left beyond the yard and two wrecked hoppers at Shafter, and nothing left beyond an old cinder block enginehouse at Cobre. Perhaps the most interesting structure on the line is on the eastern shore of Goshute Lake south of Currie, where an old fueling facility is located. The facility consists of two sidings that branch off the main, forming an "X". One of the sidings climbs up on trestle work, while the other siding crosses underneath the trestle at the crux of the "X". Loaded coal hoppers were spotted on the trestlework, and the locomotives were spotted on the other siding underneath the trestle, and coal was gravity fed from the hoppers into the steam locomotive tenders. I've written more than I intended to write, and I hope that at least some find this of interest. JDLX Elko, NV
One thing I forgot to add...there is a fantastic railfan site about the Nevada Northern and all the other railroads of Ely located at: http://nn.railfan.net JDLX Elko, NV
This situation has me curious. If that subsidiary can get away with this alleged suit, seems almost like stealing private property. I'm wondering what they want with it? If mostly 60 pound rail as you've described, what is there of value to them? Are scrap values for steel that high at present? Are there enough decent ties to salvage? I really doubt they want this to operate as a railroad? Boxcab E50
JDLX: You wrote plenty of great info- thanks much! And you're right, I shoulda remembered that the WP line is SOUTH of the SP line (seeing as it skirts the south end of the Great Salt Lake to Wendover, then twists & turns until it comes parallel to the SP at Wells.) I was in & around Elko, Wells, Currie & Ely in the summer of 2002, and the depot at Currie was still intact then, but all the windows were broken out. Interesting structure, though. One minor tidbit- there's also a bulkhead flat in the East Ely yard with a drawbar & coupler smashed over to one side, the result of a runaway car meeting up with a steamer. Last I was there, there were still the two 70-tonners (one with a broken crankshaft), two Alco RS3s, and two MRS1s in dead storage. ALso, two or three SD9s from SP, with one painted in blue & yellow and used occasionally for the Adverse excursion train (the High Line to a spot above McGill.) There are still some buildings at the old smelter site intact, but yes, the smelter itself is gone. I was fortunate enough to buy a small piece of blister copper and a piece of mine rail, both of which sit upstairs in my train room. SOmewhere I have several undeveloped rolls of film from railfanning the NN, plus I have a T-shirt I bough from the gift shop. On those Saturdays I desired mainline action, I'd drive the 90 miles or so to Wells and follow the UP on Interstate 80 to Elko, via a neat little place called Deeth. The UP yard at Elko is on the east side of town, and as long as you stay on public roads, you can shoot to your heart's content. Elko is a crew-change point, and you can see a lot of big road power there. Since the agency I was working for only let me have a Pontiac Grand Prix (not know for offroading), I never got the chance to really try any backcountry Jeep trails. A trip railfanning for me out there was a 320-mile road trip, and I drove through a lot of country where the antelope & mule deer outnumber the people, but each trip was well worth it. And it was cheaper than gambling or that other pasttime that Nevada is famous for. JDLX, are you a member of the Museum in Ely perchance?
Soapbox time: As for A&K: All they are interested in is scrap rail & ties to get what they want. This firm cares nothing about running trains. What they'll do is apply to purchase a line up for sale or abandonment under an assumed name. If they win the application, they assume ownership, may or may not run a train or two as a token sign, and then scrap the whole shebang. Any decent rails, ties, spikes, tie plates, etc. are sold to other railroads at discount prices, while the rest is scrapped. Hint: If you ever see a "railroad" company with two letters separated by an ampersand interested in acquiring a piece of railroad, chances are it is an A&K tactic (I prefer to call it a scam, and if their lawyers are reading this, they're free to sue me). Now note, some legit railroads (like Arkansas & Missouri) have two letters & an ampersand, so the deal may be legit, but just the same, watch out. May even be better to trace the ownership of that firm to see if it goes back to A&K. If I were with the NNRy Museum, or White Pine County, I'd fight this band of buzzards tooth, fang & claw if there's ever a hope to keep the line to the north intact. And before I get any bad replies, I acknowledge that A&K is a legitimate business, but the thing I disagree with is the tactic used to obtain their materials for resale. OK, I'm done ranting now.....
Ah yes, that bulkhead... When Kennecott pulled out all trackage above Keystone (where the current excursion train run ends) was removed. Magma/BHP had to build a new 4 mile long line from Keystone to the concentrator. The contractor building the line was using a backhoe to move four centerbeams loaded with new ties, when one of the rolled away, busted through a derail, plowed through a pile of dirt, then busted through the switch onto the mainline. Attained speeds of nearly 60 miles per hour in the canyon, was slowed the around 30 going through the tunnel, met the upbound excursion train with the #93 a couple hundred feet after exiting the tunnel. Several hundred injuries, a couple people flown to hospitals in Salt Lake. The #93 spent several years being re-built from that accident. Event happened on 17 June 1995- the day my wife and I got married. Talk about one hell of a wedding present. Boxcab- steel prices of all kinds are way, way up right now. A fence post that cost you $2.50 last year will run you $4.00 or more this year. Heard a news story today that many highway departments are having problems with people stealing those metal guard rails that you see along highways because scrap prices are so high. Railroad companies, like governments and other utilities, are blessed with the power to take property by condemnation (not the preferred way to do it, but it will get the job done). What is uncommon is seeing one railroad company trying to take over another by condemnation. Currie depot is still standing. Owner of Currie had some plans to restore the building a couple years ago, but nothing came of it. Currie Bar & Cafe closed last year. They did good burgers. Motive power on the property is the three steam locomotives (40, 81, 93), two ex-Kennecott and one ex-San Manuel Arizona RS-2's and RS-3s, the ex-Kennecott GE 25-tonner, two ex-Kennecott Baldwin switchers, two electrics, ex-BHP Nevada Rail SD-9's #201 and #204, the two ex-Military MRS-1s (donated to the museum by the military in 2000), and the two GE 70-tonners. Of these only the 93, the two Kennecott RS types, and the #204 are operational, with the #40 expected to return to operation later this year. BHP Nevada Rail and the museum had a multi-year contract that allowed BHP to use the museum's trackage. BHP paid a rental fee to the museum, and did all track maintenance, and handled all dispatching, and leased one of the stalls in the shop building so that they had an indoor place to maintain their equipment. There were still several years left in the contract when BHP shut down, and as part of the settlement BHP gave the museum all of it's equipment plus some cash. The museum reportedly sold both 70 tonners and four of the five SD-9s to the Colorado Kansas & Pacific, but only three of the SD-9s actually left Ely. There are several photos that my wife took of the three sitting in the yard at Shafter on the nn.railfan.net website, as well as a number of other photos that she has taken through the years. Do a word search for "Alicia" to see her work on that site. And finally, I am not currently a member of the museum, although I should be. My wife and I were members for several years, but that was one of the things that got dropped when our daughter was born. We do make it down to Ely at least once a year to ride the train, usually for the July 4th special. Perhaps it is time to start thinking about re-joining. Who were you working for in Ely? I don't do much railfanning out around here, but I work right next to the western edge of the Elko yard and get to see a lot of action. My favorite place to go watch trains in the old Palisade townsite on the other side of Carlin. Travel through Deeth a lot... JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
I was working for a traveling temp agency that summer, and my assignment was at William Bee Ririe Hospital in Ely. The lab director tried his level best to get me to hire on permanently, but Ely's too far out beyond the boonies for me (and I won't repeat what the wife said when she & the kids came to visit one weekend). I'm sure it appeals to some folks, but just not me. The museum was a big bonus, as was the UP yard up in Elko. I avoided the temptation to drive down to Las Vegas. THe only other places I would hit semi-regular in Ely were the Hotel Nevada restaurant & casino, as well as the Jailhouse Casino.
