At the Boulder City unit of the Nevada State RR Museum:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?m ... seum_p.jpg

More NSRM Boulder City photos on the ABPR here:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abpr.cgi?dir=ma ... t=by0alpha


Including this UP 2-8-0, once a Denver-based engine, that would look good in the Hugo roundhouse, with both restored:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?m ... seum_v.jpg

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?m ... seum_w.jpg

Much of the derelict equipment including UP 2-8-0 #6264 came from the old Heber Creeper operation in Heber, Utah.

The 6264 was donated to the Sons of the Utah Pioneers by the Union Pacific for display at their museum in Corinne, Utah, the first major piece for the collection. While on display in Corinne the 6264 looked like it needed only fuel and water to be operational, the 6264 was in excellent condition.

When the 6264 came to Heber City, Utah the boiler was removed. Clearances dictated the boiler and running gear be shipped separately. As far as I know, the boiler was never reattached, just set in place.

Despite the rusted looks, the 264 (the previous number, nobody in Heber called it the 6264) should be a good candidate for restoration to operating condition.

In the photo with the steam locos, in the corner of the fence, is the 65' turntable bridge from Martel, CA, on the Amador Central RR, obtained in 1982. High groundwater led them to build the wood gallows table instead in 1983, using a shallow pit. The Martel turntable was stored off-site at the Indian Hills facility south of Carson City, where the photo was taken. In 2004 it was reported as sold to the group reconstructing the Virginia & Truckee Railroad, in Virginia City, NV. It obviously had not been moved by March of 2005. Anyone know if it has been moved since then?

Dave,

I wouldn't really consider that rolling stock derelict. When I was there last Spring, the GP-30 was inside, the FM and coaches were fenced in, the whole place was "clean" and the big steam engines were on static display with the UP one in fresh black paint.

I have seen far, far worse at museums.

Rob

I get out to Boulder City periodically, and the FM was perking just a year ago. The EMD switcher was indoors, along with a restored caboose. The yard is another story, with strings of locomotives and coaches, bleaching in the sun and in some cases, drying out beyond salvage. The locomotives represent a goldmine of railroad artifacts, and seeing them unattended, rusty, and basically without plans is disheartening. The state of Nevada might be well advised to invest a massive amount of cash into cosmetically restoring the locos and perhaps building a shelter over the older equipment. It would make a great attraction, so near Hoover Dam, and frankly, one of the few attractions in that area other than the casinos.
The U.P. 2-8-0 is supposed to be in good condition. While it would be a bear to sit next to a boiler in that desert heat, a steam train to the dam would be a terrific tourist draw. The land is there for a decent set of display tracks. The Vegas casinos pull down immense sums of revenue. What's lacking is...a plan?

BTW, the shop is a nice little operation with great people around.

Sorry- I should have clarified that a lot of it was "derelict" when it was in Utah- the #6264, the tank engine, the ex-UP Harriman cars, the UP #6100 dorm lounge, the ex-UP dining car, etc., had all seen better days. A lot of the passenger equipment that had been stored in Salt Lake City was vandalized, stripped, burned, etc. If NSRM is putting it to better use than that, it's good to hear.

>bleaching in the sun and in some cases, drying out beyond salvage

Regarding this comment - what does this mean? Nearly all of my experience in inspecting cars has been with those stored outdoors in the humid and wet midwest and northeast. Frequent rains, freeze-thaw cycles, and high humidities are execellent condiditions for forcing moisture deep into cars , promoting rust and mold growth from the inside.

What are the specific hazards with equipment being stored in arid conditions?

Tom Cornillie

Tom, my reference is to wood that is dried of all water, impregnated with sap and resin, and broken down by UV radiation. The fiber of such wood become filamentous, and sponge-like in an occassional rain. Paint will prevent the complete drying of wood fibers and similarly, prevent water from soaking back into the tissue. Then there are innumerable insects which burrow into the wood to feed or seek protection. I haven't even gotten into the fungi. when wood gets to this condition, nature cleans it up with fire. I hope this clarifies my reference without coming across as arrogant!

Loss of moisture and UV lead to the wood shrinking which makes the joints open up and the parts start to move when the wind blows. This action increases the opening of the joints with wear, and sooner or later the parts fall away from each other and the car just blows away...........happened to lots of ghost towns in the past 40 years.

dave

It sounds like a case of picking one's poison. In my (albiet limited) experience, I would rather have to replace most of the wood on a car (freight or passenger) but to have the steel in good condition than have to both replace rotted wood and heavily corroded steel.

Tom Cornillie

In our experience, on a wooden car, the desert will destroy the exterior wood, but will preserve the frame. Moving a car from a dry to a wet climate is very educational, and not always in a good way. The dry wood is something of a sponge, and can first absorb moisture, then dissolve from dry rot. The new found moisture can cause the wood to warp badly. We tried to preserve the exterior siding on one passenger car, but have found in retrospect that this was not a great idea. The dry wood, particularly the exterior siding which also was exposed to sun, has lost much of its structural integrity, and wood fillers including epoxies don’t adhere well. It is particularly bad along the lower edge of a car body, where the exposed end grain allows the wood to dry even more. This is worse in a car body which sat on the ground, and therefore was exposed to moisture/dry cycles.

The dry climate is generally friendly to iron and steel, but some desert environments are corrosive, and can take their toll. The heat and sun can really bake and destroy paint, especially on a steel car. Some of the cars at Orange Empire Railroad Museum show extensive paint cracking caused by the baking affect. In this case the good maintenance practices (i.e. regular repainting, causing a very thick coat of paint) of the LA Railway have made the effect particularly extreme.

There were two different collections that came from Utah.

The steam engines, the former Union Pacific D.S. 1000 and the yellow and red coaches came from the former Heber Creeper.

The silver cars were former work cars, I don’t remember which railroad, and had been stored at the International Center in Salt Lake City courtesy of the Salt Lake, Garfield & Western. They were already in bad shape and no maintenance of any kind was ever done. In fact, the side was cut out of one car to remove a refrigerator. The International Center is relatively secure and most of the vandalism and damage, not counting the owner-inflected removal of a side, was probably done prior arrival at the International Center.

I assume the former Heber Creeper cars are probably in fairly reasonable condition having had some maintenance until the Heber Creeper called it quits and that the silver cars could be in poor condition having received no maintenance for many, many years

being from the rust belt, and having spent a lot of time in the last 25 years replacing rotted metal, I'd rather deal with wood replacement.
Thanks for the info.

The car with the hole cut in the side was ex-UP lightweight lounge dorm #6100. Until the early '90s, it was stored south of I-80 near the airport along with an ex-SP diner and a boxcar on SLG&W trackage, heavily stripped, vandalized, but still in UP colors. I believe it was owned by the Promontory NRHS at the time. I have photos of it at that location. I happened to visit the day a crew was cutting the hole in the side, and painting silver over the UP colors, I believe at the insistence of UP, since the car was clearly visible from the nearby freeway. I recall the workers telling me they were cutting the hole to make the car easier to load and unload for storage, and on a later occasion I noticed it was filled with old coach seats and assorted junk.

A short time later, #6100 was moved, along with a group of silver ex-UP Harriman work train cars, to the International Center west of the airport. Given their poor condition by then, I was really surprised that they were moved to Nevada and not scrapped.