A snowstorm has settled into the mountains of Central Nevada on this cold winter evening. Here, the Nevada Northern Railway's main yard at East Ely is at the southern most tip of the Steptoe Valley. Just beyond the snowstorm is Saxton Peak. Further back in the mountains is the Ruth Mining District, home of one of the largest copper pits on the continent, and the reason this railyard is here.
Nevada Northern Railway's Locomotive 93 was delivered here, to the East Ely Yard, over 100 years ago. She is a heavy freight locomotive who spent most of her life hauling copper ore out of the mines and up to the smelter. Today she is in excellent working order and still hauls passengers on the same rails that she has used for over a century.
Current view of Nevada Northern Railway's main yard at East Ely, Nevada. Not much has changed in the past 90 years at the East Ely Yard. It was painted in a single morning from the deck of the historic freight house, which has a commanding view of the railway's main yard. In the distance are the coaling and water towers that once served steam engines used in heavy ore traffic from one of the largest copper pits in the US.
Catenary lines over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor line. The juice in those overhead lines delivers 12,000 volts to keep the trains moving, the passengers warm in the winter, and cool in the summer. Next stop: Newark.
Just passing under the 4th street bridge, Amtrak's Southwest Chief is only a few minutes into its 2265 mile journey back home to Chicago. With a quick stop at Fullerton and Riverside, it will soon be heading up Cajon Pass as the sun sets. Tomorrow's sunrise will find it nearing Gallup, NM, almost a world apart from the one we are just departing from.
Returning from a NHRS convention a few years ago, Santa Fe's 3751 steam engine leans into the last curve as she descends off of the Cajon Summit at dusk.
The Pacific Harbor Line railroad bridge in Wilmington, CA
My son and his family now live in Kansas. I love to drive across the state, following lines that the prairie railroads laid over a century ago, which followed the covered wagon trails laid even earlier.
Clipping along through the New Jersey landscape, just 8 minutes away from Penn Station aboard Amtrak's northbound Southern Crescent, you are about to tunnel under the Hudson River before completing your long journey from The Big Easy to the Big Apple. It looks cold out there on this winter afternoon, but who goes to New York for the weather?