Scott Schrantz's Blog

Of all the things for me to miss...Peter Barton of the Nevada State Railroad Museum posted this message to Facebook today (Thursday):

A little before 9am today the railroad restoration shop crew at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City eased McKeen Motor Car, V&T No. 22 out of the shop and gingerly, ever so slowly, onto the turntable. Amazingly the wheel sets just fit on the table. So, the next obvious question to answer was whether the car could be turned. She could and we did. So now, lined up to the A” Line should we tempt fate and make the ultimate test of our confidence and move the car onto the railroad? We did. She moved smoothly through the first set of switches, over the diamond and down into the “hole.” More switches, moving southbound now, headed to Wabuska Depot. Crossing the first grade crossing and easing up along the platform at Wabuska. Would she clear the platform? She did. We observed carefully to insure she fit under the water tower. She did. More switches, more power and we started up the hill. Around the loop the car moved almost effortlessly. Brakes worked fine, power was ample, back to the Depot. We climbed off and stood silently in the sun observing the car and the depot – a scene of a century ago yet frozen still in time. Filled with emotion, we couldn’t speak but we knew the importance of this moment. Back aboard, retracing our route and back onto the turntable. On the ground admiring this awesome living artifact sitting astride the turntable, we shook hands and noted those who made this day possible: DeWitt, Stiver, Hobold, Tatum, Harding, Huffman, Ackerman, O’Cain, Smith, Wyatt, Drew, and Bernhard to name but a few. Chris DeWitt backed the car off of the turntable and back into the shop.

Now that I would have liked to see.

This is funny because somebody asked me about this just last week. The Record Courier has published the schedule for this summer's Minden Park concert series. They're also looking for sponsors still, so if you're a business owner that would like to sponsor the concerts, get in touch with Sheryl Christian at schristian@co.douglas.nv.us or (775)782-9828.

May 28 - Shane Dwight

June 18 - Beatles Tribute Imagine

July 9 - Trey Stone Band

July 30 - Mumbo Gumbo

Aug. 27 - Big Bad Wolf

An article on Sutie101.com has proclaimed Carson City to be a foodie's paradise, and highlights some of the many restaurants that led them to think so.

For many years, Carson City’s fame came from being the country’s smallest capital.Though it’s outgrown that title, the city has found new fame as Northern Nevada’s Top Culinary Spot.And since a sizeable number of its new residents were originally from other countries, many of the restaurants have a decidedly foreign flavor.

Adele's, Red's and the San Marcos Grill are some of the restaurants mentioned in the article.

Tickets have now gone on sale for the 2010 runs of the reconstructed Virginia and Truckee Railroad. The trial runs last year proved to be very popular, with most of the Saturday runs selling out for 12 weeks straight. So this year they're bumping up the number of runs, starting on Memorial Day weekend and going until Nevada Day, 23 weekends in all. And they're expanding to also run the steam train on Sundays, for a total of 46 days this year. And, if that isn't enough, they'll also be running the diesel train between Carson and Virginia on Thursdays and Fridays. So Eastgate Depot is going to be a hopping place, with trains running through there four days out of the week this summer.

They're going to be keeping the same schedule as they had last year. All of the Carson-to-Virginia runs will leave at 10 am and return around 4. Though because they're running on back-to-back days the deadheads will be a little different. The steam train will deadhead down to Carson on Saturday morning at 8 am, then deadhead back Sunday night at 5:30. The locomotive will spend Saturday night at Eastgate Depot so it will ready for the next morning's run. And the diesel will deadhead Thursday morning and Friday night.

And with the addition of the diesel runs, a whole new tier of pricing has been introduced. The round-trip steam runs are keeping the same price as they had last year, $48 for adults, $40 for seniors and $30 for kids. That $48 they charged last year was said to be a trial price, and I guess selling out all the tickets proved to them that it's not too high. The one-way steam deadheads will be slightly lower, at $29/$25/$20. The diesel round-trip tickets will be that same price, $29/$25/$20, and the one-way diesel trip will be your cheapest option, at $17/$15/$12. Also keep in mind that the V&T will still be running trains between Virginia City and Gold Hill like they have for decades, and those will be priced around $10 for a round trip. I'm not sure how the Carson City excursions will affect the schedule of the Gold Hill trips, but I guess when the diesel is in Carson the steam will be in Virginia City, and vice versa.

So this year will really be the moment of truth for the reconstructed V&T. Last year there was a high level of excitement because it was the inaugural season, and all the people who had been waiting for decades to ride the train all bought tickets at once. All over town now I see bumper stickers that say "I rode the V&T". The price of $48 seemed really high to some, but all the runs sold out so they thought they were justified in charging that much. Now that price has returned this year, and we'll see if there is still enough interest to keep the runs sold out this summer, or if all the people who were interested in riding the railroad for that price already rode last year. It might prove that the price is just right, and the train stays popular all year because demand is high enough. Maybe all the people who wanted to ride last year didn't, because the tickets sold out. That will lead to a strong first part of the season as everyone finally gets to buy their tickets. The big question mark hanging in the air is, how many of those people are there? And how many people who paid $48 to ride last year will decide to pay it again, and ride again this year? That percentage is probably low. Although the success of this train isn't going to come from locals, this train is meant to be a draw that pulls people in from all over the country. The V&T is meant to make Western Nevada a destination, and bring people here that wouldn't have come here otherwise. And how effective that will be is something we can't predict now; all we can do is sit back and watch how well these tickets sell.

Until then, railfans can look for the train crossing the Hwy 50 bridge several times a week. The first diesel excursion is on May 27th, and May 29th marks the return of steam to Eastgate Station. Should be a busy summer out there in east Carson!

The deer were out again today, bringing traffic to a stop all over the west side of Carson. A good sized herd of about 8 to 10 deer made their way through backyards and across streets, scrounging around in the late winter grass for some good bits of food. They ventured down as far as Division Street, but they attracted all together too much attention there, with everyone stopping to take pictures. So they retreated back to the quiet yards around Elizabeth St. They're probably still hanging around somewhere in the neighborhood. You usually see them on the weekends when the town is quiet.

There's a bit of a fluff erupting in the Record Courier comments about the Matley Ranch. This ranch is about 60 acres of grazing land south of Gardnerville, at the intersection of Hwy 395 and Pinenut Road, across the street from the 7-11. The owner, Peri Enterprises, had requested a change to the master plan that would convert the Matley Ranch from agricultural land to commercial, with the obvious intent of building on the site. The town board approved this change unanimously, and that's what got the commenters in an uproar. They've already been worked up by the news a few months ago that Wal-Mart is coming to Gardnerville, building on the Virginia Ranch just half a mile north. Their objections are that putting a Wal-Mart in the Carson Valley will ruin the rural character of life, as well as cannibalize business away from the local shops that line Hwy 395 through both Minden and Gardnerville. And now comes another announcement, just a short while later, of even more commercial development being planned for the same part of town. And all while the economy is in a slump and the commercial space we already have is sitting empty. So you can see why they're upset.

Although this is hardly the first time development has been proposed for the Matley Ranch. Nearly 10 years ago Peri Enterprises put forth plans for a big hotel-casino on this land, called the Villa Resort. The casino would have been patterned after a Mediterranean village, and featured a large lake fronting the highway. The casino was going to be built so that it appeared to be perched on several small islands in the lagoon, with sweeping stone arches connecting the different parts. There would also have been several acres of RV park located behind the casino. It was a striking plan, one that has stuck with me as being terribly inventive as well as terribly out-of-place in the Carson Valley. But the project fell though, just as so many hotel-casino projects planned for the Carson Valley have died.

Developers never quit, though, and now Peri Enterprises is back looking at "commercial" use for the Matley Ranch, most likely retail and office space. Maybe they'll stick with it this time, maybe it will fall apart like the Villa Resort, which never got off the ground, or the Minden Gateway, which never got above the ground. But I doubt that a few comments on the Record Courier's website will sway things much in one direction or another. Personally I don't have any particular problem with development on the Matley Ranch, since Gardnerville is going to keep growing and there's no use fighting it. That south stretch of highway is the best direction to grow in. But I don't think now is the best time for them to be developing a retail center, considering the failure of the Minden Gateway, the failure of the retail center across the street from Raley's to attract tenants, and the slump that all of Western Nevada is going through right now. It's good to bet on the future, but not too much. This project might be too much right now.

There's fairly big news in the internet space today: it's been announced that News Carson City is merging into Carson Now, combining two sites that have already had a pretty close relationship. News Carson City has been around for five years, starting as an internet version of the TV news Dave Morgan was already doing. I spotted in and wrote about it in August of 2005.

And I'm not sure if I've written about Carson Now here yet, and if I haven't it's because I'm still trying to get a handle on it. It's a new community and news site set up by Kirk Caraway, who used to be Internet Editor and columnist for the Nevada Appeal. I know he was always frustrated with all the ways the Appeal refused to use the internet, so a few months ago he decided to leave and start his own thing. Carson Now is his stab at covering Carson City news. It started up a few months ago and I've been watching it since; it's mostly an aggregation of other news sources, like the Nevada Appeal and News Carson City, and even Around Carson. They do have some original content, but it can be tough to weed through all the reposts sometimes to find the new stuff.

But it sounds like this merging of the two sites will lead to a lot more original content being posted to Carson Now, making it a more compelling destination. Dave Morgan himself is moving to Oregon, but he promises that he'll still be on the phone to everybody in Carson City, filing stories remotely even though he's out of state. Plus Jeff Munson, reporter for the Tahoe Daily Tribune and Nevada Appeal, will be writing stories for the site. So I can only see Carson Now growing in the future.

The real loss here is Dave Morgan and his video camera, which used to be seen all over town chasing after every story he could find. Dave's been doing TV news in Carson City for over 15 years, and for as much as I love text there is an immediacy and an extra layer of depth that video can bring to a story. By losing News Carson City we'll be losing an added dimension to the news. Although if you use hindsight to look back over the past couple of months, you could see this development coming. News Carson City for a while has been leaning away from the video and more heavily towards text, and even when there was a big video story there would often be a large editorial to go along with it. This was articulated in early January as Dave announced that News Carson City would be shifting more towards text, less emphasis on video. Then one month ago they canceled the TV news part of it entirely, making News Carson City a 100% online venture. You could draw a straight line from there to Dave leaving town and the site being merged with Carson Now. But at the same time, a lot of work was done on the NewsCarsonCity.com website over the past few months, changing the theme, opening up comments, and trying to build a community around that site. So it seems like maybe abandoning all that wasn't their plan until just recently.

So I'll be looking forward to Carson Now improving as it grows, and they'll be continuing the "Our Town" video interview series that Dave has been doing, kind of an internet talk show. You'll be able to find those on their YouTube channel.

The old Long John Silver's building has been through a lot of ups and downs lately. After over 20 years of selling fast food fish, the franchise owners decided in 2007 to close the doors and leave town, supposedly over a dispute about grease traps.

The building sat empty for two years, until finally a new tenant started moving in, the Sugarplum Bakery, which was relocating from Genoa to Carson. It opened last June, but only lasted about three weeks before closing their doors too. The bakery later relocated to Minden, but the Long John Silver building still sat empty.

Over the last few weeks I've seen activity around the building, so I thought there might be a new tenant in the works. And indeed, early this morning I drove by to find a sign had gone up for Lily's China Bistro. I've never heard of it before, but that could be good news, a new business owner trying to make a go of it.

This is right next door to the old Burger King, which is still in the process of being converted to Super Burrito, another local business that already has three stores in Reno. So if the national franchises are leaving and locals moving in, that could be a good trend towards bringing Carson City's economy back to life.

Nevada Appeal: State Railroad Museum seeks original riders of the historic McKeen Motor Car

The Nevada State Railroad Museum will mark the 100th year anniversary of the arrival in Carson City of the historic McKeen Motor Car on May 9 with a celebration scheduled for May 10.

The museum is seeking individuals who remember riding the McKeen Car during its original service on the famed Virginia & Truckee Railway between 1910 and 1945.

“We know of some existing residents who rode the McKeen car as children or young adults,” said Peter Barton, acting administrator of Museums & History. “We suspect there may be others out there, considering the McKeen Car was in service for over 35 years.”

Individuals who remember riding the car are urged to contact Teresa Moiola at 775-687-8323 or tmoiola@nevada culture.org to share their story and participate in the upcoming commemorative festivities.

I'm back from a week in Las Vegas, and now here comes the snow to welcome us home. We were almost starting to believe spring might have been coming. I was even wearing short sleeve shirts. But you know February and March are always like this, flip-flopping between every kind of weather imaginable. So it's not surprising at all.

Although Carson City missed the worst of the storm. We got a slight dusting of snow, with more light flakes falling as I write this. Reno, though, got dumped on with nearly a foot of powder. Another indication of how wild these storms can be.

Photo by NVKathi