And what, may you ask, does that have to do with anything? Well, it's the annual Labor Day weekend bash that the Nevada Northern RR Museum in Ely, NV puts on. Besides the usual rides behind 2-8-0 number 93 and Alco RS3 109, you can check out ultralight aircraft, take speeder rides, ogle at the old automobiles, and just walk around the NN yard (I even got to wander around inside the shops last year). I attended this to-do the very last weekend I was in Ely, and I wasn't disapointed. Ely's a fair stretch from anywhere else (150 miles from Elko, NV, and 90 miles south of I-80, plus it's 240 miles from either Salt Lake City or Las Vegas, and 320 miles from Reno), but if you like to see an intact yard, complete with really old rolling stock, steeplecab electrics, steamers, Alco, Baldwin, GE and EMD diesel power, plus rides behind a steamer up to Keystone (near the mining town of Ruth), you've gotta make the trip to Ely. Plus, the Hotel Nevada in downtown Ely, besides being a fully operational casino, has the best steak & eggs breakfast for the price anywhere. Go here for more details. [ 08. July 2003, 10:04: Message edited by: friscobob ]
Bob- Are there any depots still standing along the NN? Is the line still completely intact? Or was part of the northern end removed? (Shafter-Cobre?) Boxcab E50 [ 08. July 2003, 22:16: Message edited by: BoxcabE50 ]
The depot in East Ely (actually now part of Ely) is still quite intact- the only other depot I know of that still stands is at Currie, and it's in rough shape (windows broken out, rooms apinted different wild colors). The track is intact from Ely to Shafter, and the NN pass. train only goes up the "high line" to Adverse, up the hill from the smelter site at McGill. I'm not sure of the track between Shafter & Cobre. [ 09. July 2003, 01:31: Message edited by: friscobob ]
Here's a bit of encouraging news from the Nevada Northern Ry. website: 15 June 2003 On 12 June 2003, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn signed into law Senate Bill 507, the Capital Improvement Project Fund. Included in this legislation, as capital improvement for the Commission on Economic Development, is $500,000 for the “purchase and renovation of 120 miles of Nevada Northern railroad track.” The original funding request for development of the railroad and possible reopening of rail freight service was in the form of Assembly Bill 180. It was killed in the legislature along with companion AB181 that requested a like amount to renovate both historic structures and locomotive No. 40, which must have its boiler brought up to new federal standards. However, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins had the $500,000 request for reopening the NN transferred to the Capital Improvement Fund. The $500,000 earmarked by the legislature is only a portion of the funds necessary to purchase the right of way. LADWP is seeking $700,000 for the line from McGill Junction to Cobre in Elko County, well below its estimated $1.6 million value. LADWP- Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power, the current owners of this line. Nothing is running between Hiline (where the line to Adverse branches off) and Cobre.
