Whoo, Whoo.. All Aboard

The first part of today is for Gerry Young.  We are not train buffs, but we have visited Gerry's basement so could not pass up what we found in Ely.   The Nevada Northern Railway is long gone but 14 miles of track and all of the original rail yard and maintenance buildings have been preserved and continue to be fully functional.

This is the only place left in America where you can not only take a train ride on an old steamer, but you can pay to be the engineer / operator for the complete journey.   The photo album is quite large and I have scanned the information from the brochure and the description of the rail yard.

Our personal tour guide for the afternoon (just for the two of us) cost $4 each.  We felt that "Bob" was worth a lot more than that and so we made a donation to their society as well.  Bob is 81 and only works 5 days a week in the off season.  He steps it up to six during the peak summer months.  He is normally the Walking Tour Guide and Concession Host but if one of the other volunteers is missing he fills in as an operational Engineer, Brakeman (front or rear), or Conductor.  He does not shovel coal any more on the steamers!

Bob was wonderfully soft spoken with exceptional clarity.  His role as Tour Guide was very well suited.  He seemed to enjoy it best when you asked specific questions as it gave him a chance to stray from his set routine.  I did not understand much of the technical specifications that he rattled off as he described the role of every building, piece of machinery and of course the many different steam and diesel locomotives. 

There are a number of full time paid machinists working on restoring and repairing the many loco's and other cars on site.  Volunteers run, work and do the daily maintenance on the operational cars and loco's.  It is a very popular destination in the summer months.  Gerry, I hope you enjoy the photos and the story.  We are really happy we found this place!