As noted by Brian, the title “Loneliest Road” came from an article in Life Magazine in July 1986… The Nevada Department of Tourism has adopted the name as a marketing slogan… They offer a passport to allow one to claim “I survived America’s Loneliest Road”… The Life Magazine article claimed there were “no points of interest” along the route and “warned” readers not to risk traveling it unless they were confident of their “survival skills.”

As you travel east, once you leave Fallon Nevada, it is 435 miles until you reach Interstate 15 near Delta in Utah… along that piece of road you will pass through Eureka Nevada (one time terminus of the Eureka and Palisade railroad) population 432, Austin Nevada (one time terminus of the Nevada Central Railroad) population 113, and Ely at just over 4,000 people… Along the way it is a two lane road… a nice two lane paved road with some significant grades, most located west of Ely. The road is used by heavy trucks, supporting the mining industry, so is appropriate for moves of this kind. I note that heading south from Ely is US 6, which has no services (gas, food, etc.) for nearly 180 miles on the way to Tonopah…

Beyond the issue of solid bearing wheel sets, it is very likely neither locomotive has alignment control couplers… Also the kiss of death when moving a locomotive on the Union Pacific. I note that the Nevada Northern still has a physical connection, but that the track to the north of Curie to the former WP interchange has been sold, but also has been out of service for some time.

Beyond discussing the road, we should celebrate a museum getting two very appropriate locomotives for its collection, and seeing the Northwest Railway museum upgrade its collection with a much more appropriate locomotive. Thanks John T for the locomotive histories...

The 770 arrived at Snoqualmie yesterday and the 201 left for Ely this morning.

Randy, interesting description of Nevada.

The minerals must be in the South where US 50 is, while the rail connections are well to the North where the CP/SP/UP and WP/UP are (most favorable East/West grades)

Thus, each rail line has a long North/South connecting track from the mine/smelter up to the rail connection to the World.

The solid bearings should not be a problem to NNRy since i do not believe 40, 79 or 81 has roller bearings or alignment-control couplers either.

CNJ bought 14 RSD-4's for their Pennsylvania Division and they had roller bearings. Then they got an RSD-5 to work the Allentown hump. This had solid bearings. They then spent the rest of the engine's career installing roller bearings, one axle at a time.

Phil Mulligan

Three photos of #201 at Snoqualmie:

The RSD-4 is moving in a rig similar to the one that moved UP 833 from Salt Lake City to Ogden years ago. Two multi-wheel dollies support two beams. The locomotive is suspended from the beams and is between the dollies. The dollies have widely separated wheels.

This sounds overly complicated but keeps the overall height down and spreads the weight to avoid overloading bridges.

The trucks are moving separately. I haven't seen but they must be on one or two conventional rigs not needing a permit.

Update: It looks like Intermountain Rigging and Heavy Haul did the UP 833 move and is doing the NNRy 201 move.

Phil Mulligan