Nevada State Railroad Museum's Steam Locomotive #8 Has a "Bad Hair Day"

This video was left out of the Living Steam DVD. If you like this video then you might like the Living Steam DVD or Blu-Ray disc, available at Amazon.com. There are previews at http://www.youtube.com/livingsteam, or at the livingsteam.com website.

I left this clip out of Living Steam because it shows a breakdown of the Nevada State Railroad Museum's #8 steam locomotive. It was more a cool-down, because the fireman was unable to keep a sufficient fire and the locomotive quit when going up a slight hill. The museum had installed a flow meter to test the locomotive's oil use. Unfortunately, this meter also restricted the oil flow and prevented the fire from running at full blast.

The locomotive comes to a stop, and once the fire is built back up, there's a problem getting the locomotive to move.

You can see throughout the video, when the engineer blasts the whistle, he is trying to save steam. It sounds pretty weak. After a couple runbys, we hop in the cab for the ill-fated run. This locomotive, while part of the collection at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, never was owned by the original Virginia and Truckee Railroad that shut down in 1950. It was run during the 1970's for a year at the Virginia and Truckee Railroad in Virginia City, Nevada. In that sense, it is a true V&T locomotive.

#8 has a colorful history, you can read it at the NSRM-friends.org website at http://www.nsrm-friends.org/nsrm04.html. Like some of the original V&T locomotives, it was sold to a movie production company in the 1940s and used in various films. This is probably the main reason it didn't go to the scrap pile. It was then acquired by Short Line enterprises and eventually found its way to Carson City, Nevda.

This was shot in late 2007. Currently, in 2010, #8 is down for firebox repairs. Perhaps the volunteers blew it up one too many times, I have seen where rookie firemen let the fire die down at the stations. The fire goes out without their knowing it, but the locomotive still has enough steam to get underway. Once the fireman goes to spray the oil, it hits a hotspot in the firebox and BOOM. I have seen this happen and it felt like an earthquake in the Wabuska depot. Anyway, that's my guess about why the firebox might be damaged, I've seen this multiple times and the volunteers don't bother to inform the mechanical staff who work full-time at the museum.

With the #8 down, #25 pulled the load in 2009. #25 is a real original Virginia and Truckee locomotive, it also worked in the movies before settling in at Carson City's railroad museum. The #25 tender has problems, though, so late last year on Nevada Day I saw #25 pulling the #8 tender you see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8V6CWGL9qw.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• virginia
• and
• truckee
• railroad
• nevada
• state
• museum
• oil
• fired
• steam
• locomotive
• box
• cylinder
• engineer
• fireman
• carson
• city

[jnamobley]

Look for someone who can get My friend and I a cab rife on the V & T. The last time I was there I got one in 95 or 96 when I was station at Travis AFB. Were going to be in Reno for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and trainman Convention in Oct 4-7. So anything, person or place that we should see or go to I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks JB Mobley

[virginiatruckee]

@jnamobley You mean on the Nevada State Railroad Museum? I think you have to pay for cab rides there, check out their website or call them at 775 687-6953.

If you mean on the V&T long run from Carson City to Virginia City, that's not that easy these days. They seem to have a pretty strict no-cab-ride policy. I don't know about that, just go ride and ask.

[choft720]

Whether you are a pro or not, this was one of the best video's I have ever seen of a steamer fouling up due to modern technology. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Why in heck do they need to place a fuel use meter on that steamer? Figure how many times it goes in a circle & mileage in one day. Gallons of oil used, then compare that to the amount of water they go through which should be about 3-4 tanks of water for each refill of fuel and you have your formula. K.I.S.S. Method !

Thanks !

[shogunballa14]

wasnt the number 8 ran on the sierra railroad for a brief period of time?

[Miserlou57]

Railroad groupies?!?

Where the heck have they been all my life?!?!

[virginiatruckee]

Yeah, the HV20 is a hi-def camera, but in HDV not AVCHD format. I have used Adobe Premiere for years, and through CS3 they still don't support AVCHD.

I probably could have used Corel Video Studio and found a cheaper way out, but to get Adobe Premiere to work for editing and After Effect, for effects and Encore for producing Blu-Ray discs, I spent a lot of money upgrading my memory, getting a better video card, etc.

HD editing is great but using Premiere is expensive (but worth it, IMHO)

[AMTK510]

yeah, I know where you're coming from. I recently switched from Standard Def to Hi-Def. And my Standard Def Camera was Mini DV. I like Mini DV cause you don't have to worry about losing your memories, whereas on SDHC card Cams, you'll have to delete stuff you may not want to if you want more recording time.

[virginiatruckee]

Also, in my studies of the ICC/PUC hearings in the late 30's and again in the late 40's, and in Gordon Sampsons oral history at UNR, he notes that during the war, the V&T was within the 250 mile range of the coast where government controlled what was shipped on rails because of the threat of Japanese bombing. If I remember correctly, the V&T lost oil shipments to trucks during WWII and got them back in the last few years. There wasn't much freight coming out of Carson Valley, making a 1-way RR.

[virginiatruckee]

True, computervet, I was referring to two choke points with the NDOT conspiracy theory.

1) at the north end of Washoe City

2) Lakeview

I don't believe NDOT was the reason the V&T closed, I just bring it up as a conspiracy theory I have heard.

The other conspiracy theory was that Gordon Sampson was paid off by the truckers to close the V&T. This conveniently ignored the death of Ogden Mills and the estate managers decision to shut down the railroad after losing money for decades.

[virginiatruckee]

It's a well-worn Canon HV20. It's been a great camera, it can shoot in 24fps, but all my videos are shot at 30fps. It has a great way of catching light that I haven't seen on other camera.

It has developed a tape problem where every once in a while it drops some frames. So far it hasn't done that at critical points very often, I need to take it in for repairs.

I still like tape-based cameras because you get an extra backup, but it's time-consuming to suck the video into a computer.