Howdy all,

I've been researching lately into the history of the railroads that hauled out of Death Valley about the turn of the century, railroads such as the Borate & Daggett, Death Valley Railroad, Ludlow & Southern and the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroads, but what has captured my attention and interest the most, was the old Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, a 200-mile long shortline railroad that ran from Ludlow, CA to Beatty, NV only reaching Tonopah courtesy of Bullfrog-Goldfield rails.

Being a hardcore railroad preservationist, I have gathered up all the resources I could find in books and online I could find to see how much rolling stock from these old railways are left, and from what I could find, T&T has at least one railcar, one boxcar, flatcar and caboose left.

Gasoline-motor driven Railcar #99 is the sole surviving self-powered Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad locomotive, built in the 1930's by St. Louis Car Co. to replace some of the old aging steam engines. After the line closed in 1940, she was bought by the Ferrocarril-Sonora Baja California in Mexico to be used as a supply car till about 1967, and is still there rusting away, a shadow of her former glory.


Caboose #402 is currently in the care of the Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, Nevada, whilst Flat Car #205 and Boxcar #111 are at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum in Perris, California.


Now I think that I'm still missing something here. I know all the T&T steam engines are already scrapped, but does anyone know if there are any passenger cars or anything else that still survives to this day?

And what about Death Valley Railroad No. 1 and the Heislers of the Borate & Daggett?






These were the very engines that pioneered the use of the borax railroads, last I've heard was that DVRR No. 1 is at Municipal Beach Park in Carlsbad, NM, but I have currently found no photographic evidence to support this, and records show that Francis and Marion were lost without trace after they worked on lumber railroads in Round Mountain, CA and Aspgrove, OR respectively. Does anyone have any knowledge of the traces or whereabouts of these engines or if there are any more out there?

As a fellow railway historian to another, I would be grateful for anyone that are willing to step forward and hand down any sort of knowledge I may need fulfill my quest.

Thank you.

((Oh, and sorry if the photos are a bit large, I unfortunately do not know how to resize them. :P ))

Steamlocomotive.info lists two surviving DVRR 2-8-0's. I didn't look up the Heislers.

Rob

In Rhyolite there is the body of an ancient side door caboose, but I don't know it's heritage. There is a Death Valley Railroad gas car from Brill restored to operation at the Laws museum near Bishop. And don't forget the Death Valley Baby gauge which was one of North America's first tourist railroads. Nearly the entire 2' gauge line is intact, and I think one of the gas locomotives is at a museum nearby.

Back in 1979, I visited Ludlow and photographed the ruins of the T&T shop complex. I doubt that much has happened in the intervening years, but if nobody has newer photos I can scan them.

There are several of us doing Borax narrow gauge and desert railroads.... You may want to discuss this at Pacificng.com...

The Borate & Daggett is not Death Valley, it is Daggett and the Calico Mountains... by chance John Daggett, one time head of the SF Mint... 19th century California Lieutenant Governor is my wife's great uncle, and I happen to have his personal gold box... The B&D hieslers are long ago scrapped, as was the rolling stock of the B&D (after is was transferred to the Death Valley Railroad...)

There were a couple of other Borax railroads in CA... Sterling Borax had an 3' operation at Tick Canyon in LA county... one of their Davenport 0-4-0t locomotives made it to Death Valley Jct on the Death Valley railroad as a boiler for the laundry at the Death Valley Jct Hotel... (still there... a bit rough but a nice place to stay)... American Borax had a railroad at Daggett... they were merged with Sterling Borax and their loco went to Tick canyon...

The two Death Valley Baldwins survive, one in Death Valley at Furnace Creek, the other in New Mexico... the third locomotive from the New Mexico operation is in Pomona California... The Brill railcar from the Death Valley is in Laws California.

There is a T&T coach at Nevada State Railroad Museum... long thought to be a Las Vegas and Tonopah car, its real identity was recently found by Wendel Huffman, the NSRM curator/historian.

This might be research interest of mine... just might...

Randy

Also... the caboose in Ryolite is a UP/likely LA&SL car...

Orange Empire has a T&T hopper...

Randy

????
This is new to me. And I am a long-time OERM member.

We have the T&T flat car and the T&T (ex-D&LW) box car.

We have a UP ballast hopper. We have a side-dump car from Ajo, Arizona.

Here's a post card which was sent to me in 1984. Not sure where she is today, perhaps scrapped.

Mr.Starr

I am aware of this. I looked it up before and it said #2 was kept at the Borax Museum at Furness Creek Wash in Death Valley, and that #1 was kept on display at the Municipal Beach Park at Carlsbad, NM. The only problem is that I looked at all the pictures I could find on the internet of this park, and I couldn't see DVRR #1 anywhere. I'm not sure exactly if it is still there or not.



I believe that the caboose was once used as a hut for a gas station now closed, and it is ex-'Union Pacific', but this photo shows it was also used on the SPLA&SL (San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad).



There could be a possibility that it could've worked on the Las Vegas & Tonopah Railroad, probably explains how it got so far out as Rhyolite, as the LV&T once indeed go to Rhyolite.



I personally don't believe the B&D engines were ''scrapped'', I've gathered all the resources I could find, and all I've found out so far was that 'Francis' was sent to Round Mountain in 1919 to work for the Terry Lumber Company's private railroad until Red River Lumber bought out the operations about late 1919 or 1921 and the mill burned down later in '25, forcing the railroad to close down. There was nothing else I could find out about the 'Francis' after that. As for the 'Marion', she was bought by the Modoc Lumber Company in 1913 after her owner, Francis Marion Smith, decided that she would be too weak for the operations on the Death Valley Railroad. Then in about 1925 or '26, the line that 'Marion' worked on around Aspgrove, OR was regauged from 3-foot to standard gauge to support a SG Shay and an 4-6-0 tender engine they just bought. 'Marion' was regauged to standard and rebuilt to work on the new line, then till about 1939, the mill burned down and the logging line was abandoned. No records of them could be found of what happened to them after that.

I don't know, but if they were scrapped there would have to be at least one record of it happening, but I haven't found any so far and I only live in Daggett, CA so my resources are limited.



Yeah, I heard about the Davenport. From one resource I could find, it was used on the B&D's dual-gauge section inbetween Daggett and Marion, the company town for the roaster mill there, to deconstruct it and move it away to Death Valley Junction. After the job was done, the engine was used as a stationary boiler for the Amargosa Hotel's laundry house. The engine was sadly, later scrapped about the time the T&T shut down in 1940. There was another engine used at the Borax Mines at Tick Canyon formerly used on the Daggett & Calico Railroad in 1888, an 0-4-0 Porter locomotive with the build number of 937 and went by the name of 'Emil'. I'm currently trying to find her whereabouts as well.

( Picture is too big to put on the forums, so I linked it instead to where I uplaoded it on Wikipedia. I wrote the article on the railroad she worked for myself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wate ... mil%27.png )

And I already know the DVRR railcar was already preserved, and as well as #2. Not so sure about #1 though, people say that she's still in Carlsbad, NM but I haven't found a single photo of her to support this claim.

But I did not know about the T&T/LV&T coach at the NSRM. That's interesting.... Have they restored her yet, or what's her current condition?



They have a hopper too? Huh, never heard about that.



Unfourtanatly, T&T #8 was indeed scrapped. After the T&T ceased operations in 1940, she was bought by the Dulien Steel Products Co. the following year. Later on, the now-closed Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana, CA (you know, where they restored the Santa Fe 3751?) and they rebuilt her into an 0-8-0 for switching. She was later scrapped in 1947.

This information was provided for me by Phil Serpico's excellent book "Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad: The Nevada Short Line". I definitely recommend getting a copy of this book, it is full of information for anyone interested in the T&T and related railroads.

I am aware of this. I looked it up before and it said #2 was kept at the Borax Museum at Furness Creek Wash in Death Valley, and that #1 was kept on display at the Municipal Beach Park at Carlsbad, NM. The only problem is that I looked at all the pictures I could find on the internet of this park, and I couldn't see DVRR #1 anywhere. I'm not sure exactly if it is still there or not.

Death Valley RR #1 is located in Carlsbad, New Mexico between E. Riverside Dr. and Park Dr. just north of E. Church St.

Mention of the locomotive being scrapped at Kaiser Steel in Fontana CA brings up images of a much bigger salvage operation at Kaiser: the burning and cutting up of the Pacific Electric 1200-class interurban cars in 1951. Getting back to steam locomotives: the early 1940s were not a good time for worn-out steamers. There was a war on, and scrap drives saw all sorts of historic vehicles (and not just railway equipment) disappear into the open hearth furnaces.

Would this be it right here?



(I took this picture from Google Earth's street view on my iPhone. This was the best view I could get of it.)

Yes, that is Death Valley R.R. #1

See my post above. Orange Empire does not have a T&T hopper.

I have been active at Orange Empire for 40+ years and currently (and for a long time) on its Board of Directors.

The Davenport 0-4-0t (c/n 1498) was never used on the Borate and Daggett railroad. That railroad was abandoned in Oct 1907, some years before the locomotive was built in March, 1916.

The Davenport was purchased new by Sterling Borax, a Pacific Coast Borax competitor for their line up Tick Canyon in Los Angeles County... Yes, Sterling received the used porter (c/n 937, the Emil Porter, No 1 built for the Oro Grande Mining Company) The railroad between Daggett and Calico was variously known as the Oro Grande Mining railroad, the Waterloo Mining Co railroad, the Calico railroad or the Calico & Daggett... This is a single railroad with at least 4 names. Its other porter, No 2 Sanger c/n 962 an 0-6-0t was sold to the Mohave and Milltown, c.1903

The Porter (c/n 937) was first leased, then sold (in 1901) to American Borax for their railroad out of Daggett... that railroad shared one mile of track with the Calico railroad. American Borax was an investor in Sterling Borax, and it appears that the locomotive is transferred to Tick canyon in 1908... It is said to have been number 1 in Tick canyon, but a photo which maybe this engine shows it as number 2 (this could be a third unknown engine) Sterling also had a small unknown internal combustion locomotive of unknown manufacture.

Pacific Coast Borax shuts down the Tick Canyon operation in the early 1920's and the Davenport was sent to Death Valley Jct where it ended up as a stationary boiler for the hotel laundry... there are photos of the saddle tank being scrapped at Ludlow. It is assumed, but not known for certain that the other locomotives and cars from the Tick canyon were scrapped. Someone earlier suggested that there would be a record of scrapping... I suspect not... these were mostly industrial railroads, and the railroad equipment would likely have been included in a bulk contract to scrap the facility.

There is one mystery surrounding the Pacific Coast Borax narrow gauge operations... in Jan 1899, Pacific Coast Borax buys 15, 4 wheel dump cars from Carson & Colorado. These had been built by/for the Virginia & Truckee in 1870-1874 (as standard gauge cars) rebuilt by the V&T as narrow gauge car and sold to the Carson & Colorado railroad in 1882, mostly used on the Candelaria branch, then are sold to PCB in 1899... They don't appear in known equipment lists or photos of the B&D (as would be expected at that date... ) They do not appear on lists of equipment transferred to the DVRR... Of course by 1899 they were near 30 years old and likely pretty beat up...

The T&T hopper thing was from memory... sorry...

Randy