I visited the museum in Ely, NV on Saturday.
While there I got a personal tour of the facilities there which I videoed.
It will be weeks before I get to editing and posting that video.
After the tour was finished I walked around the yard and took photos of the rolling stock and structures that weren't included in the tour.
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Beautiful Photos Rick!
WOW!! Some really nice photos Rick. Thanks for sharing.
Jerry
Howdy Rick,
Thanks for the photos. They are a great reference for the colors of old freight cars. I was especially interested in the grey color of the trucks. I may be rusting mine too much.
Have fun,
mike
Mike, it wouldn't surprise me if NN artifacts weathered a little different than those in a damper climate. I read they get 9.6" of rain a year, average. Of course, that's more than twice Las Vegas's average. But what surprised me most about Ely's weather is more than 200 days a year where it gets below freezing.
Rick and other readers: I have Ely photos taken in 2014, when the NN had two locos in steam and the R&LHS did a fan trip. I'd be happy to post a selection, either here or in a new thread.
The Nevada Northern wood boxcars all have similar underframes, with steel angles running crosswise. I don't know if that's how they were constructed, or those were added later for strength. That's not typical truss rod construction from what I've studied.
dave
James, you can post your pictures here if you like.
They have three steam locos and all of them are in the shop for repairs.
Evening of 6 June 2014. NRHS bus tour of Nevada sites arrived about sunset, visited the yard before going to dinner/hotel.
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Looking NNW from station area.
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Looking ENE from station platform, one of the next day's trains made up.
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Silhouette of 100 ton steam wrecking crane and tool car looking NNW.
Rick,
Thanks for the pictures of all the rolling stock.
It's nice to see what real cars look like. Thanks for sharing.
Rich
Equipment pictures from June 7, before our first train left East Ely depot.
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Baggage car likely built as all wood. Nevada Northern website may say if it ever got a steel underframe installed. At least the way the B&M did it, they kept the truss rods to support the body while the new steel underframe kept trucks and couplers in the proper relationship.
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By NN standards, 4-6-0 #40 was a "high wheeler", usually assigned to the 139 mile run north to the WP (Shafter, NV) and SP (Cobre, NV) connections
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This steel hopper-bottom gondola looks like it hauled fairly dense ore.
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This one looks like it was built for slag, or something else denser and harder to get flowing than copper ore.
James, thanks for the additional pictures.
The crane and #40 I saw inside the shop.
Didn't see the baggage car.
You're welcome, Rick. I misspoke, looking closer it's an RPO-Baggage with a 15 foot apartment.
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This is the steam heat radiator for the baggage area.
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A view of more of that side of the RPO-Baggage interior.
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By the light, this is the other side of the RPO-Baggage: A locker for either valuable express packages or employee clothing
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Closeup of a drop-equalized 6-wheel Pullman-style truck.
More equipment photos before we left the Ely depot.
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Details on the end of a wood vestibule coach (I think)..
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The work train's combine is presumably older, because it has open platforms, but I can't say why it has 6-wheel trucks.
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Their tool/boom car looks like it started out traditionally, as a flat car reaching retirement age. But more effort went into the cribbing rack than I recall seeing elsewhere.
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Their 1907 Industrial Works crane 'A' was restored to operation some time back, and has both a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXA7ecznWGc
and a web page with restoration details: https://nnry.com/nevada-northern-wrecking-crane-a/
Note: I don't recommend dropping heavy lifting gear at all, let alone onto the wood deck of a flat car.
I erred in my last post. All four photos were taken some distance West of East Ely, where our train stopped for run-bys. First run-by was our passenger train.
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Then the work train got its turn in the spotlight. You can see a little of East Ely in the distance in front of the locomotive in both shots.
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I think I saw this truck dump ramp in the background of one of Rick's photos. I shot it for documentation.
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I think I see old 6-bolt joint bars for a fairly light (70 lb?) rail section holding the ?repair? joist in place at the center of the deck. You can get joint bars in laserboard fairly cheaply. I know there's a vendor reference in my Signaling thread, I'll copy it here in my next post.
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Interesting photos, Rick and James.
Thanks for sharing them.
KARL
Thanks, Karl. Here are some detail photos of NN #20, the wood/SUF RPO/baggage with the 15 foot mail apartment:
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I can't say what this lamp in the baggage space burns. Maybe kerosene, but how to advance the wick?
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I didn't know steel underframe kits with cast parts existed, so no idea how common they were. Cast-in queenposts are an extra oddity. Other steel underframes I've seen have riveted crossbearers. Not sure I could have gotten a useful shot of the truck bolsters, but if I ever return I'll try.
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Print it? Laser-cut the vertical from sheet and apply strip flanges?
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The air brake system seems much more mainstream for that era.
Aren't those Pintsch Lamps? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Pintsch There's a nice restored Pintsch Lamp in the Rico business car at the Colorado RR Museum.
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We went with a Medicare Supplement plan, as opposed to Medicare Advantage. So far that has worked OK for us. Several insurance companies piulled out of the Advantage market here in NH, which has sent people with those plans scrambling to find alternatives.
dave
I know Pintsch's name and checked his Wikipedia page before I posted. Looking at your photo, I see enough similarities that it's certainly possible.
Did you intend the health insurance paragraph for the Daily Chat?
The NN provided two trains for the R&LHS tour: we rode the coach & RPO/baggage behind passenger 4-6-0 #40 and the wreck train followed for photo shoots and run-bys. The most complicated staging was at the East end of a short tunnel by the highway from Ely to Ruth.
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2-8-0 #93 charges out with the work train (the audience could ride in its combine too).
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NN #93 was built in 1909. I expect its Franklin Economy Steam Chests were applied between the wars, the NN probably has records of the details of the job.
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I climbed the hill for the passenger train run-bys, but the shot that seems most useful shows the roofs:
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Rick showed the sides of several NN 36' boxcars. This shows enough of the end to model. I wonder if it's insulated: Interior width 8' 6", exterior width 9' 8".
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I'm surprised to see the whole 1020-1025 series in the January 1960 Official Railway Equipment Register. Arch-bar trucks had been banned from interchange since 1949. 1023 was built in Oct. 1912.
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This is the hopper dump side of the concrete coaling tower. I'd guess built between 1920 and 1940, the NN probably has the original contract, payment schedule and plans.
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Underside of the concrete coaling tower where it meets its wood predecessor.
More steam loco servicing facilities.
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First a simple water column.
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Underneath the coal dump side of the wood coal tower.
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Two different generations of coal chute, water tower in background.
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Closer view of the newer coal chute, plus sand fill pipe. I photographed the ash pit too, but it's a modern replacement.
Rick and James,
Nice photo tour of the Nevada Northern. Thanks for sharing all the photos.
Tom
Looking up at the wood coaling tower, I'm surprised the NBWs do not pop out like I would expect. It seems there was either a splice or a split on the one diagonal brace, with a pair of NBWs holding it together in the middle.
dave
Great photos, guys. No pictures of their famous shop cat? One of the ways to donate is for the cat's upkeep. I think this is probably their major income source. :D
Jeff
Quote from: Zephyrus52246 on November 10, 2025, 11:03:42 AMGreat photos, guys. No pictures of their famous shop cat? One of the ways to donate is for the cat's upkeep. I think this is probably their major income source. :D
Jeff
.
I have video of the cat.
"Dirt" the original NN shop cat passed a few years ago. I saw Dirt in 2014, but didn't take a picture. NN's October newsletter names three successors: "Dirt Jr.", "R2D3" (RailRoadDIrt3) and "Kennecat", all yellow/orange depending on how much shop dirt they're wearing.
Thanks for the hopper dump picture. I was wondering about how to configure and build one.
Good ens Rick/James!
Friscomike made some of those interior lamps and I think Tom L. made a scene for the dump trucks in his thread somewhere.........
I was looking at the picture in post #19.
Thinking how life like that modeling is! What a great job the modeler did
Doh! It's real.