Tag: railroad

I found the story of the "City of San Francisco" train, which in 1952 got stranded in snow just west of Donner Summit with over 200 passengers onboard. It could have been the Donner Party Part 2. The train ran into a snowdrift on January 13th and came to a dead stop. The engineer was able to call for help, but by the time the big rotary snowplows had made their way up to the buried train, the wheels and brake lines had frozen. The train was going nowhere. So now it was a matter of clearing the tracks to bring in a rescue train, but in the middle of a fierce blizzard that proved nearly impossible to do. One of the first snowplows on the scene broke down right next to the trapped train. A couple others got stuck in snowdrifts themselves. Men with shovels tried to dig out all the stuck trains, but even after hours of shoveling in the blizzard they found the wheels were frozen and wouldn't budge. Nature was overwhelming every effort of man to get the passengers out of there.

It wasn't until the third day, January 16th, that any rescue was in sight. By then the engines had run out of water, which was needed to generate steam heat for the cabins, and they were pulling resources off of the other trains that were stuck in the area to keep people warm. A Coast Guard helicopter came into the area, but couldn't land. Rescue was coming from several directions, but none of it was quite able to reach the train.

When rescue finally came, it wasn't from the rails, it was from the road. The Highway Department had taken advantage of a break in the storm to plow nearby Highway 40 (now I-80) and were able to send a fleet of cars up to grab the passengers and bring them down the hill to warmth, safety, and a steak dinner. It took three more days to dig out the train itself, so frozen were the wheels to the track.

The next time you're stuck in chain controls for a hour or two on I-80, think of this story. Then go read the whole thing, from the January 1953 issue of Trains & Travel magazine.

Over its 80-year history, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad ran a grand total of 29 locomotives across its tracks. Most of them were sold for scrap after they had outlived their usefulness, but a few still survive to today. Those that do survive are with us only because they were sold to Hollywood studios in the 1930s and used in films, or passed on to other organizations that kept them off the scrap heap long enough for their historical signifigance to be recognized.

Out of the original 29 engines, only nine still survive. The Nevada State Railroad Museum here in Carson City has four of them; there is also one at Old Tuscon Studios, one in Pennsylvania, and three at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

Since I went to the Sacramento museum in December, I was able to bring back these pictures of Carson City's wayward children, those three locomotives being held captive by our neighbors to the West.

#12 Genoa

The Genoa was built by Baldwin in 1873. It was one of the fastest V&T engines, and a favorite of the train crews back then. Declining business led to the Genoa being retired in 1908, and sitting in storage for the next 30 years. The V&T got rid of it in 1939, and it spent some time touring the country as a display engine. The Genoa finally ended up in the hands of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, who in turn donated it to the state of California to be used in their new railroad museum. It's theoretically still in operable condition, though it hasn't been steamed up since 1979.

#13 Empire

The Empire was built at the same time as the Genoa, so in a way they're sister engines. Like the Genoa, it operated on the V&T until the early 20th century, but then it was sold to the Pacific Portland Cement Company of Gerlach, Nevada and used in their yards. Eventually it ended up back with its sister in the care of the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society. They cosmetically restored it, and moved it into Sacramento's new museum building in 1981.

#21 J. W. Bowker

The little J. W. Bowker was built in 1875, two years after its compatriots in Sacramento. It was put to work as a switching engine, working in the Virginia City yards. In 1896 it was sold to the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company, hauling lumber at Lake Tahoe. After that it became a movie train, appearing in the film "Union Pacific". And then, like the others, it ended up with the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society and formed the core of the California State Railroad Museum's collection. Unlike it's larger cousins, though, the J. W. Bowker doesn't get a place of honor inside the main display hall. It's still on display in the open-air Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station next door, where it's been for 30 years now.

So those are the three engines that should be in Carson City, but instead are just a couple of hours away in Sacramento. It's unlikely they'll ever end up back here where they belong, so it's good to know that we can go visit them whenever we have a free weekend.

Here's two minutes of footage from Sunday's Santa Train:

Today we went with some friends down to the Santa Train at the Nevada State Railroad Museum. And guess what? There was a train, and Santa was on it. Wow! Truth in advertising!

So since time is short, and a thousand words and all that, here are some photos.

#25 pulling around the bend. This is the last time they're running a steam train until May 2007.

Handing out candy canes.

And shaking hands.

Santa escaping out the caboose.

Inside the museum, the #22 Inyo.

The #27.

And Whistlin' Billy, the train for kids.

More pictures. And a movie.

The Nevada State Railroad Museum is running their Santa Train this weekend. Come on down, bring the kids (or just bring yourself), and enjoy a ride on the steam train and an open house at the museum. It runs this Saturday and Sunday, December 9th and 10th, from 9:00am to 4:00pm.