Sunday, May 20, 2007

Nevada State Railroad Museum - Carson City


This is the other part of the Nevada State Railroad Museum, the first part I visited was in Boulder City. As there, the Museum is part of the State Department of Cultural Affairs, Division of Museums and History. The Boulder City branch shows a staff of four, Carson City, with a much larger facility and collection, shows a staff of 13 with a vacancy in the Director's position if anybody's interested. As in Boulder City, the operation of the trains as well as a lot of the restoration work is done by a "Friends" group. The members I met were friendly and knowledgeable. They have two types of operations, a steam engine with passenger cars and a motor car or "Doodlebug." They more or less alternate the the type of operation they do each weekend. Though I would have preferred the steam operation, I happened to be there on the weekend they ran the motor car. They have a loop of track, a turntable, a small yard and a rather large annex that they use as workshop and storage. The loop has a wye attached on one side that they use to turn their steam locomotive occasionally and run it backwards. Because of the tight curves of their loop, the tire wear can be excessive and running it backwards evens out that wear over both sides.

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