Part 4 of Virginia and Truckee Railroad's Ed Gallegos, Cab Ride on #29

Here is the final installment of four videos showing a day back in September, 2008 where I followed Ed Gallegos around at the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

Next will be a video showing Ed firing the 2010 Trains and Travel International First Annual Virginia and Truckee Railfan Spectacular.

This video is a little different than the Ed Gallegos Show Parts 1-3, because now Ed is running the locomotive and doesn't have time to ham it up. Here you see the sometimes boring experience of riding in the cab of a steam locomotive. While everyone has a romanticized notion of driving a steam train, this video shows that in some ways it's just another job, and it gets boring.

This is showing the short run from Virginia City to Gold Hill. Originally the Virginia and Truckee Railroad started operations in 1976 running from Virginia City to Tunnel 4 and back. Once Tunnel 4 was finished and tracks were laid to Gold Hill in the 1990's, the Virginia City -- Gold Hill run delighted tourists for another decade or more.

Recently, in 2009 and 2010, the $10 million construction project to extend the line has seen partial completion for about $40 million. Now you can just ride the short run, or you can ride the long run from Far-Far-East Carson City to Virginia City.

On the long run you will see a highway, junkyards, a storage space complex, a racetrack, a buried pile of tires, environmental devastation in the for of old mines and mills, and if you're lucky you'll see a wild horse.

The tracks have been continued past Eastgate Siding into Far-Far-East Carson City toward the mouth of the Carson River Canyon. That view features brothels visible past more junkyard, and the NNRF charity began selling Red Light Express t-shirts.

If you want to ride visit http://www.visitcarsoncity.com. There you can buy tickets for the long-run 2010 season of steam weekends or diesel Thursdays and Fridays. You can also reserve tickets for the short run.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• virginia
• truckee
• railroad
• railway
• reconstruction
• steam
• locomotive
• ed
• gallegos
• jerry
• hoover
• track
• train
• fireman
• oil
• burning
• kingsford
• coal
• wood
• gold
• hill
• city

[CGiordano464]

how longs the full trip?

[virginiatruckee]

@CGiordano464 From Carson City's Eastgate depot to Virginia City and back, about 6.5 hours with a three hour stop in Virginia City.

The short run from VC to Gold Hill and back is only 45 minutes. There's also a Colors in the Canyon trip that runs about 45 minutes, from Eastgate depot to Eureka Siding and back.

see visitcarsoncity . com for tickets

[jet936]

Excellent....I noticed the engineer didn't close the throttle when he adjusted the Johnson bar, so is this a piston valve loco ?

[virginiatruckee]

@jet936 You've got me, I don't know, I think you know more about locomotives than me. If I remember, I'll bug the owner Tom Gray and ask him.

[Kleman09]

The correct whistle signal for forward is two short toots. But it depends on what you call short.

[virginiatruckee]

@Kleman09 Well, you're right, he said long and it should be short. But hey, whatever makes the tourists happy, right! If you notice right after he leaves he slips the wheels a couple times. The V&T recently redid the grade approaching the 342 crossing, so it's not so hard to leave Gold Hill anymore. They raised the track a few feet approaching the crossing.

[203lindy]

@ponkkaa

There are just several methods of running the valves on a locomotive, the high settings on the reverser are used for times when much steam is needed, for instance starting the train, and the lower settings are to use the steam expansively in the cylinder. Getting a locomotive started requires more steam than keeping it moving unless for example you are pulling a hard hill.

:D

[203lindy]

@virginiatruckee

Yes it does have piston valves, but you don't have to close the throttle if when you adjust the power reeverse, or johnson bar with either kind of valve.

[JonatanGronoset]

I finally came around to watching all parts of this great movie. I realy enjoyed it, thanks!!

[artoftrains]

There is a low and high gear in both forward and reverse. I honestly don't know if this is just two positions or variable, but at minimum there's five settings -- low and high forward, neutral (disengaged), low and high reverse.

[ponkkaa]

Excellent video. Why is the reverser gear on a notched bracket? I never realized that there was more than two positions. Is it a timing thing?

[gjhgjh]

Thanks for a wonderful time in this short movie. And the signal is 2 shorts.