Monday, September 12, 2011

We're a Little Late With This One, Folks

On Labor Day weekend, we were headed for Reno to visit Kathie in the hospital following her back surgery.

To get to Reno, you follow US 395 north until it runs off to join US 50. Right at that intersection, as we were about to turn, we noticed that the Nevada State Railroad Museum was having a special event. The antique engines were on display, puffing and blowing.

Of course, we were the the right turn lane, and the Museum was on the left, so we wheeled into a parking lot, made a big fast circle and ended up headed back into the Museum's parking lot.

Now, we had been here four years ago, and visited these antique engines inside the museum. The major display piece is good old Number 22, the Inyo.


The Inyo, built in 1875 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, at a cost of $9,065, has a colorful history.

In 1937, Paramount Pictures acquired the Inyo, starring it in High, Wide and Handsome in 1937, and other films later. More recently, it was featured in the TV Series Wild, Wild West." Number 22 has made appearances at Promontory, Utah (for the Gold Spike Centennial in 1969), and appeared as the Central Pacific's Jupiter (one of the two original engines) at the Gold Spike National Historical Site.

But this year, Number 22, and its less colorful partner, Number 25, were out on display, and were even being used for passenger rides! We pulled in and parked, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the other side of the station to get some pictures. Suzy is not as agile, and stayed in the car to watch from the comfort of the front seat. Here's some of what we saw:


Number 25 did most of the passenger trips around the museum track.

Number 22 made only one trip while we were at the museum.
Another event was in full swing while we were at the museum, and if we had known about it, we would not have eaten lunch at home that day. The Carson City Fire Department was holding a hamburger cookout, open to the public. And they had this old Fire Engine on display.


For more pictures of our two visits at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, take a peek at our web album, Nevada State Railroad Museum. An interesting hour in ... Our Life on Wheels.






10 comments:

  1. I hope you know that Sam (of Sam and Donna) is slobbering all over his computer screen about now...:-))

    ReplyDelete
  2. What fun seeing those old trains and to get to see them in action is even better... and how do you alwys manage to go to where they are having food events... YUMMO! Great photos ~ Thanks
    Have fun & travel safe
    Donna

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did a train ride b/w Virginia City and Tunnel 4, Gold Hill back in '84 ... if I recall correctly our train was pulled by #29.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interesting stop for sure. I enjoyed seeing all the great photos of those old locomotives.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't that the best part of RVing? The sudden unexpected delight of it all? Great pictures too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a gorgeous set of trains! Looks like they're superbly restored too.
    Nina

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the photos. Thanks for the tour. Not sure we will ever get there. Be sure to let us know how Kathie is doing.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love that museum. Your pictures are just wonderful. So glad you got to revisit such a fun spot.

    ReplyDelete
  9. There is always something about the smell of steam locomotives like no other. A combination of burning wood, well oiled iron parts and the sweet smell of boiler steam. I grew up only a few hundred yards from a set of train tracks and remember those old steam locomotives well. Always nice to come across steam locomotion regardless of what it is but steam locomotives, regardless of size, are always my favorite....

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jerry, while it is true that Suzy could not retrieve all geocaches from a scooter, there are many that she could search for. The caches have a difficulty rating from 1-5 with caches of a 1 rating could be reachable for her from a scooter. I have bad knees and don't search for caches over a 3.5 rating. I do sometimes look for the cache to see if it was rated too difficult and many times they are not. Go geocaching with someone else and check it out. You find the most interesting out of the way places when you geocache.

    ReplyDelete

Here's your chance to tell us what you think!