carsonnv.html

Overview

Parent company Southern Pacific Company (1900-1996) Union Pacific Railroad (1996-present) Locale Nevada and California Dates of operation 1880-1960 (narrow gauge)

Length 293 miles (470 km)

Nevada Subdivision Hazen Fallon branch Virginia & Truckee Railroad Mound House route change & converted 1905 Mound House Plaster Co. Marbelite Spur Dayton Dayton, Sutro & Carson Valley RR Rock Point Carson River Clifton Hazen cutoff Fort Churchill Washout Copper Belt Railway Wabuska Fort Churchill Generating Station Walker River Lux Mason Rio Vista Reservation Schurz Walker River Rawhide Junction Stuckley Gillis Nolan Magnus Walker 1905 bypass Thorne Hawthorne Army Depot Hawthorne Cottonwood Dover Stansfield Kinkead Luning New Boston Mina == end of dual gauge Soda Springs Rhodes Rhodes salt marsh Tonopah Junction Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad Belleville Filben Candelaria Little Summit Raydel Bassalt Mt. Montgomery Sunland elev. 7,141 ft (2,177 m) Montgomery Pass tunnel 247 ft 75.3 m Silex

Queen

Nevada-Border

California-Border

Benton Chalfant Laws (Bishop) Alvord Monola rerouted c. 1920s Owens River Tinemaha Reservoir Owens River Independence Owenyo Lone Pine Subdivision Lone Pine

Keeler

The Carson and Colorado Railway was a U.S. 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad that ran from Mound House, Nevada, to Keeler, California, below the Cerro Gordo Mines. The narrow gauge track was chosen to reduce cost. The railroad served an arid area heavily dependent on mineral resources for economic activity. 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. After it was acquired by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the sprawling company romantically dubbed the route as the Slim Princess.

History

The original company

As the Comstock Lode was winding down, a group which had benefited from the strike with connections to the Bank of California sought to exploit further potential strikes to the south. The company was incorporated on May 10, 1880, as the Carson and Colorado Railroad, and construction on the railroad began on May 31, 1880. The Carson and Colorado began operations with a single Baldwin 4-4-0, the Candelaria. The first passenger train ran to Hawthorne in 1880 to show off the town site. Construction commenced in the second half of 1881, building south to Belleville by that December, then finally to Candelaria the following March. This was initially indicated to be the road's terminal for a time, but the company began construction south into the Owens Valley in 1882 with the intention to connect to the Southern Pacific Railroad at Mojave. Interchanging with the railroads under the same corporate control at both ends of the railway seemed unlikely, but even an incomplete line was seen as having potential for mineral traffic. Finally, trains arrived at Keeler on August 1, 1883. The route reached an altitude of 7,100 feet (2,200 m) in Montgomery Pass. A short spur line from Hawthorne to Cottonwood was built to carry lumber, operating between 1891 and 1902. The line showed profit for its first few years, even in an incomplete state, but the mining districts served had already bust. The three constituent companies which built and operated the line were reorganized as the Carson and Colorado Railway in 1892 to reduce accumulated debt.

Sale to the Southern Pacific

Within a few years after its inception, the Carson and Colorado became a hindrance to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad (V&T), the parent company of the C&C, which sold the line to the Southern Pacific Company in 1900. Darius Ogden Mills (part owner) was once quoted saying "Gentlemen, we either built the line 300 miles too long, or 300 years too soon!". Silver and gold discoveries at Tonopah, Nevada and Goldfield, Nevada provided a major boost of revenues shortly after the Southern Pacific purchase. Initially planned as part of the railroad's more direct route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, the death of C.P. Huntington in 1901 would doom those plans as the Union Pacific Railroad became more tightly integrated to the Southern Pacific. From the time of the purchase until 1905, all of the C&C's freight traveled over the V&T's trackage from Mound House to Reno, and vice versa. Because of the changeover from 3-foot (0.91 m) narrow gauge to standard gauge cars, all the freight had to be handled by hand at Mound House, which caused a great bottleneck, especially after the mining booms of Tonopah and Goldfield. Southern Pacific (SP) proffered an offer to purchase the V&T, but the price was considered too high. As a result, the SP began constructing the Hazen cutoff, which circumvented the V&T entirely after it opened. The northern 140 miles (230 km) from Mound House to Mina, Nevada was converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge in 1905; and the remaining C&C was merged into the Southern Pacific's 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge subsidiary, the Nevada and California Railroad. (The line between Tonopah Junction and Mina was laid to a dual gauge, allowing access to Mina's shops.) A new standard gauge line was run south of Owenyo after 1911, but it was mostly constructed to facilitate construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This left a break of gauge where passengers were forced to transfer to the narrow gauge line to travel through the Owens Valley, and Southern Pacific did not intend to rectify this situation. The Nevada and California Railroad was reorganized into the Central Pacific Railroad in 1912.

End of narrow gauge operations

Carson & Colorado #10, originally a combination business car and caboose, later named the "Esmeralda," at the Southern California Railway Museum. In the early 20th century, it operated under the name "Southern Pacific Keeler Branch". Traffic on the north end was bolstered with the construction of the U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot at Hawthorne in 1928. Portions of the line were abandoned in the 1930s and the 1940s. The Mixed train service ceased in 1956. The last narrow gauge common carrier made its final run on April 29, 1960. The rails were removed in January, 1961.

The modern line

The northern segment of line continued operation to serve the Hawthorne Army Depot. Tracks between Mina and Thorne were abandoned in the late 1980s, bringing the active line to 57 miles (92 km) in length. The United States Army purchased the remaining segment of the line south of Wabuska in 1991 and set about upgrading tracks and bridges. By 2016, trains ran weekly as far south as Wabuska, with infrequent runs further to the Army Depot.

Towns and railroad stations served

The following were towns or stops along the line:

Mound House, Nevada (V&T Railroad to Carson City and Virginia City) Dayton, Nevada Fort Churchill, Nevada Wabuska, Nevada (Copper Belt Railway to Yerington) Lux, Nevada Moquist, Nevada Rio Vista, Nevada Schurz, Nevada Stuckey, Nevada Copperhill, Nevada Gillis, Nevada Rand, Nevada Magnus, Nevada Walker, Nevada Thorne, Nevada Hawthorne, Nevada (branch to Cottonwood) Cottonwood, Nevada (branch only) Kinkead, Nevada Luning, Nevada New Boston, Nevada Mina, Nevada Sodaville, Nevada (Soda Springs) Rhodes, Nevada Tonopah Junction, Nevada (Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad) Belleville, Nevada Filben, Nevada (spur to Candelaria) Candelaria, Nevada (spur only) Basalt, Nevada Summit, Nevada (Mt. Montgomery) Queen, Nevada Benton, California Hammil Valley, California Laws, California, Owensville Zurich, California Monola, California (formerly Alvord) Kearsarge, California Manzanar, California Owenyo, California (Southern Pacific Railroad to Lone Pine, Ridgecrest, and Los Angeles) Alico, California Dolomite, California Mock, California Swansea, California

Keeler, California

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