TONOPAH & GOLDFIELD RAILROAD COMPANY
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Note: Out in the Great Basin of Nevada, at an elevation of over a mile high, operated the comstock railroad of the Tonapah & Goldfield during the early 1900's. It ran between the Southern Pacific at Mina and the same named silver and gold mining kingdoms. Likewise. By 1908 it made southern connections at Goldfield with the Tonopah & Tidewater, via the Bullfrog & Goldfield at Beatty, and the Las Vegas & Tonopah. Imagine, for a period of about ten-years it was possible to take a train to Las Vegas from Reno. Ofcourse, who would want to? While Reno was a growing, modern city, Las Vegas was still a small hot spot out in the desert. It was nothing more than a railroad junction complete with spring, a depot, and one small hotel. Profitable? It hauled the majority of freight and passengers necessary to buld towns and mining industries where over 30,000 people would set up shop and survive!. Long after the railroad stopped making profits, it continued to run well into the 1940's on excess profits it had already made! - - - - - - - - - - Snapshot History * Incorporated - November 1, 1905 under the laws of Nevada as a consolidation of the Tonopah R.R. & the Goldfield R.R. * Operational Length - Mina to Tonopah Junction (Southern Pacific trackage rights) 9.30 miles; Tonopah Junction to Tonopah, 60 miles; Columbia Jct. to Goldfield, 28.28 miles; including branches, sidings and spurs, 102 miles total. Operated under receivership June of 1932 to July of 1937. * Controlled by - The Tonopah Mining Company of Nevada stock ownership. * Motive Power and Equipment - (1921) 10 locomotives, 143 freight cars, 6 passenger cars. Later operated two motor cars, No. 102 and No. 103, and an early diesel from 1945 to close. * Abandoned - October 15, 1947
T&P 2-8-0 #57Image, Tonapah & Goldfield 2-8-0 Loco #57 Order No. TGF57I Pictured here was one of their 2-8-0 locomotives #57 complete with Vanderbilt tender. Built by Baldwin in 1907, #31728, this engine ran on 55" drivers, weighed in at 174,000 lbs, had 22" X 28" cylinders and boiler pressure of 180 pounds. -------------------- T&P 2-8-0 #57 view A"
Image, Tonapah & Goldfield 2-8-0 Loco #57 Order No. TGF57AI Photographer: Ted Wurm Mina, Nevada, July 21, 1937: Tonopah & Goldfield 2-8-0 locomotive #57 sits in the line soon, no doubt, to be scrapped.
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