It seems like just yesterday that I went up to Gold Hill to report on the groundbreaking ceremony for the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. It was actually back in April. They were just starting to fill in the enormous Overman Pit so they could lay tracks across it. It looked like a huge job that would take all summer. But now, according to the Nevada Appeal, they’re almost done with it. In a little over two months they’ve moved untold thousands of cubic feet of dirt and rock, filled in a hole over a huindred feet deep, and cleared out nearly a mile of right-of-way that hasn’t had rails on it for over 60 years. There’s still more work to be done, of course, like making sure the trackbed is nice and smooth, putting down gravel, and laying the tracks themselves. But I thought the earthmoving part would take the longest, and here it is done already. I guess it’s all that pent-up energy from waiting so long for the project to get off the ground. Now that they’re actually working on it, it’s going lightning fast. We need these guys to start working on the Ormsby House.
I had planned to make a couple of trips up to Gold Hill this summer to check out their progress and take some pictures. It’s been two months and I haven’t been back yet, mostly because my daily routine involves shuttling between home and work, and going up to the Comstock is a pretty big detour. I guess I better hurry up and get up there, so I can have some “during” pictures to go along with the “before” and “after” shots I’m planning on putting together.
The plan is for the whole project to be done and the train to be running on the new tracks in August. I think they’re definitely going to pull it off. I’d like to be on the first train to run on the new rails, but I’m sure it’s going to be packed pretty full!
