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We’re gearing up. Opening Day is a week away and there are hundreds if not thousands of tasks that need to be done in the next week. And our Opening Weekend is also White Pine Weekend. The museum is offering adult residents of White Pine County half price tickets that weekend and better yet, kids […]

When I was growing up, I use to sing the song I’ve Been Working on the Railroad. If you have a little gray on your head, you probably remember how it goes. I’ve been workin’ on the railroad,All the livelong day.I’ve been workin’ on the railroad,Just to pass the time away . . . Little did

Hidden away in north central Nevada is a state treasure so rare and complete that it earned national recognition: the Nevada Northern Railway Museum. This “living museum” is officially listed on the Register of National Historic Landmarks, the highest recognition that can be bestowed by the federal government on a historic property. It is an

by Natasha Bettis, Buildings and Grounds Manager As we accomplish more here at the Nevada Northern one thing becomes clear; we need more space. More space to work on locomotives and cars, more space to safely and securely store assets, the list goes on. Some of you may be aware of the recent work on

by Marty Westland, Chief Mechanical Officer “But didn’t you just rebuild 40?” I’ve heard the question dozens of times when visitors see the locomotive in the shop for repairs. So I thought that this might be a good opportunity to explain a little bit about the “care and feeding” of our steam locomotives. As you

For the past eight years, the Nevada Northern Railway Museum has hosted a winter photo shoot that we call the Winter Steam Spectacular. Photographers from around the world come to Ely to photograph the railroad in the winter. Why? It is a chance to experience railroading as it was a century ago. Here on the

If you think you were born one hundred years too late to witness the glory of steam railroading, then I have good news for you: you weren’t. There still exists a place where time stopped. Steam locomotives still rule the rails here. Passenger trains are still made up with cars whose origins date back as

There is this myth floating around that the museum has an “off” season; nothing could be further from the truth. Various projects are under way year round, not all of them are directly tied to railroading, but they are all tied to museum development. The big push right now is for toilets. Yes, that’s right

At the time Joan and I started restoring combine 06, we had mistakenly assumed that we were working on combine 05. A combine is a railroad passenger car that combines both a passenger section and a baggage section, hence the name combine. This type of car was used on routes that didn’t have much in

When my wife Joan and I first started as volunteers at the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in 1999, we discovered a wooden combine car squirreled away in the back of the enginehouse. Someone had started to restore the car and quit, leaving it in the most gawd-awful orangish-yellow color. Not knowing any better, Joan and