Scott Schrantz's Blog

The Virginia and Truckee Railroad that’s been running up in Virginia City for the last 30 years has two steam locomotives. At first they only had one, Locomotive #29, a 1916 Baldwin. But then, I’m not sure exactly what year, they acquired Engine #8. And it’s a good thing for them to have two because when one breaks down or has to be overhauled, they can always use the other one.

At least, that’s the way it was during the 1990s. In 2003, both engines were in bad need of repair at the same time. So the railroad managed to get its hands on a surplus diesel yard switcher, and used that to pull the trains while the steam engines were rebuilt. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea, but it was only going to be a temporary situation. The overhaul of engine #8 was supposed to take a few months, and #29 “about a year”. Here we are in 2006, and the railroad is still running solely on the diesel engine.

At least, that is, until this summer! The news just came out today that #29 is out of its overhaul and ready to run the rails again starting in May. This is some good news, first of all because there will be a steam engine running again after four years, and second of all because #29 is the one that gets to come out of rehab first. It’s my favorite of the two. So to mark the occasion, I pulled out this picture I took for a college class. I think it’s still one of my best.

And here’s a few from a snowy day in 1995 when I went up to ride the rails.

It’ll be good to have #29 back.

New Then And Now:
#11 Central School

Wow. I can’t believe it, but after a week and a half of empty promises from the weatherfolk in the area, we’re finally getting some snow. For a while I thought it would never happen, because they kept saying to “watch out for the big storm”, and then we’d get like three clouds in the sky and that was it. So now that the storm is finally here, big or not, I can finally feel a sense of completion.

Or couse, at the same time I’m pissed off because now I have to go out in it. Snow is messy, it’s dangerous, it slows you down, it makes it hard to drive and to walk, and then after a couple of days, when it gets all hard and crunchy, you start wishing for a heat wave to make it all go away. And so while I like sitting in the house and watching the snow fall out the window, I just really don’t like having to go about my daily business in it. I think Monday was the best day, because on Monday it just rained all day. And we found out when we spent our week in Seattle that rain really is the best kind of weather you can have. Of course, that’s the one thing we never get here.

Sun or snow, those are your two choices in Nevada.

I know it’s been a few months, but I’m back with an update to the Ormsby House Renovation Gallery.

This time it’s a “State of the Ormsby” update. They haven’t done any work lately, but I show what they have done so far, and what they still need to do. The amount of work still left to go, coupled with the apparent fact that they haven’t done jack in the last three months, is pretty disheartening.

Two pages — One | Two

Ormsby House Update

New Then And Now:
#10 David Smaill House

I guess it’s better to be prepared when nothing happens than to be surprised when something happens. And that’s probably the reason the local media has been bombarding us with news and alerts for the past five days about this killer storm that’s coming in, and the flood warnings, and the sandbag locations, and what to do if there’s high water. Because when they were telling us all of this on Friday, and it was sunny skies with some of the warmest weather in months, it didn’t seem like it had a chance of happening. But that’s the point, they say. You need to prepare before it starts. But then yesterday was the big day, and the rain had started falling Sunday night, and all the Reno news stations had camera crews camped out by the river, and reporters were filling sandbags during the commercial breaks, and the funniest part of the joke is that the storm wasn’t that bad. It rained for about 24 hours before drying up, and then this morning the blue skies came out. Which, maybe around here 24 hours of rain is a big deal. But in someplace like Seattle, that’s a slow day. And yes the rivers did rise a little bit, but they never got near flood stage.

So I guess it’s a good thing that the media were on top of the big storm that was coming in, and if it had turned out to be something, all the preparations would have come in handy. But it’s funny to see them make such a big deal out of what was ultimately such a little thing. At least down here in the valleys.

Of course, the next storm that’s coming in, on Thursday, really is the big one. Be sure to stock up on bread.

Update: Oh, I’m such a putz. I wrote this in a windowless basement, and then when I stepped outsiude, what was it doing? It was snowing. Ha ha ha ha ha. That’s so funny it’s sad.

After nine months of waiting and construction, Carson City once again can enjoy the fine faux-Italian cuisine of our local Pizza Hut. There had been a Pizza Hut in town on North Carson Street forever, but last year they decided that the building they were in wasn’t meeting their needs anymore. Their plan at the time was to tear down and rebuild from the ground up, but to still cook and sell pizza out of a trailer in the parking lot.

Pizza Hut in May 2005, right before it was demolished.

So they brought in the official Pizza Hut Special Events Trailer, a 53-foot, self-contained beast with three ovens, walk-in fridge, and a freezer, which normally travels to places like the Super Bowl and the Kentucky Derby. And they were promptly shut down by the city because they didn’t have the proper permits to operate the trailer. So that part of the plan fell out from under them, like, immediately.

Gone, except for two walls. September 2005.

The second part of their plan was to build a shiny new restaurant. It was to be completed in six weeks, with a grand opening in July. Well, July came and went. As did August. And September. And for this whole time the lot sat vacant except for two sad little walls from the old building that they inexplicably didn’t knock down. It wasn’t until the cold fingers of winter gripped the capital that construction finally got underway on the new building.

December 2005.

And once construction did start, it was no six-week job. It seemed to stretch on for months. What is it with Carson City and delayed construction projects, anyway? It’s like this town is cursed, and all construction gets delayed to five or six times past its original deadline. Maybe we’re sitting on a Mystery Spot.

Finally open for business, February 2006.

Anyway, it wasn’t until just this last week, in February 2006, a full nine months after the plan was first announced, that I saw the new Pizza Hut open for business. A lot longer than they anticipated, but at least they finally got the job done. So already they’ve got that advantage over the Ormsby House.

So now we don’t have to travel to Reno to get our new Cheesy Bites Pizza, available for a limited time only, anymore. We can drop right in here in Carson. I just hope that with their new building comes some new management and staff, because we always dreaded going to the old Pizza Hut. Rude workers, menu items not available, and interminably long wait times for our food were always staples of our visits to Pizza Hut. If they’ve fixed those problems, then all this work has been worth it.

If they haven’t, then screw 'em. I go to Papa Murphy’s anyway.

New Restaurant: Cafe Del Rio

Ever since launching the Then And Now section of the site two weeks ago, I’ve been on a roll. I’m up to a total of eight articles, which for a procrastinator like me is quite an accomplishment in only 16 days. The latest one, just posted today, is the first one where I revisit a photograph that I myself took. It’s a before-and-then comparison of the new Cafe Del Rio restaurant in Virginia City, showing how much renovation they did to the space.

We made a special trip up to Virginia City last weekend just to eat at the Cafe Del Rio, and let me tell you, it was worth every mile. That was some delicious food right there. I had a burrito and Viola had a Mahi Mahi taco, and it was some of the best Southwest/TexMex food we’ve tasted. One problem we’ve had with VC is that there aren’t a lot of good places to eat when you go up there. There are hamburger stands in some of the casinos, and there are bars that serve food, and a couple of restaurants, but nothing we’ve had up there has ever been that great. But now, with the Cafe Del Rio open, that has all changed. I mean, the restaurant is a destination all by itself, but I’m sure it will be even better as the topper to a full day on the Comstock. I urge everyone who’s reading this to make the special trip up there and try it out. You won’t be sorry (a menu, address and map can be found here).