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Southern Pacific #8 is a 4-6-0 narrow-gauge steam locomotive, built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in August 1907.
It was originally built for the Nevada–California–Oregon Railway as their second #8, and was sold to Southern Pacific in 1929. She spent the rest of its career hauling passengers and freight along Southern Pacific's Keeler Branch. The locomotive, along with sisters #9 and #18 were nicknamed "The Desert Princesses", having served the desert areas of Nevada and California. [1]
In 1954, an GE 50 Ton diesel locomotive was purchased, relegating steam power on the Southern Pacific's narrow-gauge line to backup duty. Locomotive #8 was retired in 1955 after 48 years of service and donated to the State of Nevada. Now owned by the Nevada State Railroad Museum, it has been on display at Lillard Park at Sparks, Nevada since 1975 after negotiations of a long-term loan. [2]
The California State Railroad Museum is a museum in the California State Parks system that interprets the role of railroads in the West. It is located in Old Sacramento State Historic Park at 111 I Street, Sacramento, California.
The McKeen Motor Car Company of Omaha, Nebraska, was a builder of internal combustion-engined railroad motor cars (railcars), constructing 152 between 1905 and 1917. Founded by William McKeen, the Union Pacific Railroad's Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery, the company was essentially an offshoot of the Union Pacific and the first cars were constructed by the UP before McKeen leased shop space in the UP's Omaha Shops in Omaha, Nebraska. The UP had asked him to develop a way of running small passenger trains more economically and McKeen produced a design that was ahead of its time. Unfortunately, internal combustion engine technology was not and the McKeen cars never found a truly reliable powerplant.
The Virginia and Truckee Railroad is a privately owned heritage railroad, headquartered in Virginia City, Nevada. Its private and publicly owned route is 14 miles (23 km) long. When first constructed in the 19th century, it was a commercial freight railroad which was originally built to serve the Comstock Lode mining communities of northwestern Nevada.
The Nevada Central Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad completed in 1880 between Battle Mountain and Austin, Nevada. The railroad was constructed to connect Austin, the center of a rich silver mining area, with the Southern Pacific transcontinental railroad, at Battle Mountain.
The Carson and Colorado Railway was a U.S. 3 ft narrow gauge railroad that ran from Mound House, Nevada, to Keeler, California, below the Cerro Gordo Mines. It was incorporated on May 10, 1880, as the Carson and Colorado Railroad, and construction on the railroad began on May 31, 1880. The narrow gauge track was chosen to reduce cost. Much of the route now parallels U.S. Route 95 Alternate, U.S. Route 95, Nevada State Route 360, U.S. Route 6, and U.S. Route 395.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railway with two operating steam locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Rudy Stauffer organized the YMSPRR in 1961, utilizing historic railroad track, rolling stock and locomotives to construct a tourist line along the historic route of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company.
Plaster City is a large gypsum quarry and plant owned by United States Gypsum in Imperial County, California. It is located 17 miles (27 km) west of El Centro, at an elevation of 105 feet.
Laws is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. Laws is located 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Bishop on U.S. Route 6, towards the Nevada state line.
The Pacific Coast Railway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railway on the Central Coast of California. The original 10-mile (16 km) link from San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach and Port Harford was later built southward to Santa Maria and Los Olivos, with branches to Sisquoc and Guadalupe.
Standard gauge was favored for railway construction in the United States, although a fairly large narrow-gauge system developed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah. Isolated narrow-gauge lines were built in many areas to minimize construction costs for industrial transport or resort access, and some of these lines offered common carrier service. Outside Colorado, these isolated lines evolved into regional narrow-gauge systems in Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Hawaii, and Alaska.
The Eureka is a privately owned 3 ft gauge steam locomotive based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is one of three preserved Baldwin class 8-18 C 4-4-0 locomotives in the United States, of which it is the only operable example. It is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.
The Eureka and Palisade Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad constructed in 1873-1875 between Palisade and Eureka, Nevada, a distance of approximately 85 miles (137 km). The railroad was constructed to connect Eureka, the center of a rich silver mining area, with the national railway network at Palisade.
The Virginia and Truckee 18 Dayton is a historic standard gauge steam locomotive on display in Sacramento, California. It spent its working life on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.
The Grizzly Flats Railroad (GFRR) was a 3-foot narrow-gauge heritage railroad owned by Disney animator Ward Kimball at his home in San Gabriel, California. The railroad had 900 feet (274.3 m) of track, and was operated from 1942 to 2006. It was the first full-size backyard railroad in the United States.
The Nevada Short Line Railway was a 12.6 mi (20.3 km), 3 ft narrow gauge railroad that ran east from Oreana to the silver mining area of Rochester, Nevada. The railway terminated near, but did not connect with, the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) in Oreana due to the Nevada Short Line being 3 ft gauge and the SP being a standard gauge mainline. The railway intended to eventually transition to standard gauge, but this never happened.
Glenbrook is a 2-6-0, Mogul type, narrow-gauge steam railway locomotive built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1875 for the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company's 3 ft Lake Tahoe narrow-gauge railroad.
Virginia and Truckee Railroad No. 22, also known as the "Inyo", is a 4-4-0 "American" type steam locomotive that was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1875 and pulled both passenger and freight trains. The Inyo weighs 68,000 lb (31,000 kg). Its 57 in (140 cm) driving wheels deliver 11,920 lb (5,410 kg) of tractive force. In 1877 it was fitted with air brakes and in 1910 it was converted to burn oil rather than wood.
Southern Pacific #9 is a 4-6-0 oil-fired narrow gauge steam locomotive, built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in November 1909.
Southern Pacific No. 18, also known as the "Slim Princess", is an oil-fired 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler" type narrow-gauge steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1911.
The Southern California Railway Museum, formerly known as the Orange Empire Railway Museum, is a railroad museum in Perris, California, United States. It was founded in 1956 at Griffith Park in Los Angeles before moving to the former Pinacate Station as the "Orange Empire Trolley Museum" in 1958. It was renamed "Orange Empire Railway Museum" in 1975 after merging with a museum then known as the California Southern Railroad Museum, and adopted its current name in 2019. The museum also operates a heritage railroad on the museum grounds.