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Two-hundred thousand dollars is a great deal of money until you look at the needs of the enginehouse/machine shop building. Seventy-nine thousand dollars had already been invested in the building and we had barely scratched the surface. The engineering studies had been done and we knew what we were facing. Our two biggest challenges were […]

When you talk about the railroad museum, it is easy to get wrapped up in the trains and track. Yet a huge piece of the museum, the piece that the public sees first, is usually overlooked. Without this component, we would not have much of a museum. It is this component, in addition to the

The weekend of April 16th and 17th was the start of another busy season on the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. Over the course of four days, there were four scheduled trains, a charter, and ten locomotive rentals. All of this equated to a lot of activity on the railroad. Moving these trains took every available

I recently gave a tour of the museum to a tour operator who was accompanied by Ed Spear from the Bristlecone Convention Center. Now Ed was on the City Council when the railroad was given to the community. And over the course of years, Ed has watched the progress of the museum. Whenever Ed gives

Assemblyman Goicoechea and Senator Rhodes Introduce Bill for the Nevada Northern Railway Museum Assemblyman Goicoechea has introduced A.B. 424 into this session of the legislature to request $800,000 for the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. The bill is jointly sponsored by Senator Rhodes. This money would be used for desperately needed public safety improvements, building improvements,

by Steve Swanson This is an article by Steve Swanson on the history of the Nevada Northern locomotives. In this piece he answers where the tender that we have in the yard came from. Enjoy. Nevada Northern engine No. 80 entered service in April 1913, now as a conventional looking 2-8-0 with a tractive effort

The nickname for the Nevada Northern Railway Museum is the Ghost Train of Old Ely. The reason for the name alludes to the fact that we are keeping the past alive at the museum. Once, just about every small town in America had a connection to railroads; today that’s gone. If the railroad still goes

. . . The number one question was when would locomotive 40 be ready? It was a question we didn’t have an answer to. Finally, the answer became “it will be ready when we throw the first match into the firebox and not before.” It was easy to see the progress being made on locomotive

No one should undertake the rebuilding of a steam locomotive lightly. The museum had experience. Using outside contractors we had successfully rebuilt steam locomotive 93. The use of outside contractors caused the cost of the rebuild to be stratospheric. The museum simply could not afford the same amount of money for the rebuild on locomotive

If you where within ten miles of Ely last Tuesday or Wednesday, you knew the Queen was back! After an eleven month rebuild, the pride of the Nevada Northern Railway steam locomotive 40 was back in service. As she went through the yard, the engineer used locomotive 40’s whistle liberally. A very distinctive whistle, you