Via Around Carson via Nevada Appeal, comes a report that the V&T Railroad Commission may ask the V&T Railroad Company in Virginia City to operate a train from Virginia City to Mound House beginning this summer.
The story has a bit of history. Originally the V&T Commission had selected a now defunct out of state operator to run the completed project. But the V&T project funding has stalled out a bit. The track through to Mound House is very likely to be ready for trains this summer, and a new bridge over Highway 50 is well along.
Meanwhile, Tom Gray has operated a train from Virginia City to Silver City for quite a while now. It’s possibly not a terrific business but he has certainly been doing it for awhile. He has a diesel train for when his steam engine is in the shop, and has managed to run every year since he opened. The Commission apparently is investigating taking over the V&T Company to run the train. The Commission would handle maintenance costs and take 5% of ticket revenues under the proposed agreement.
There is concern on the part of some that the V&T Company doesn’t have the money or people to run the 11 mile run. It currently runs 2.5 miles.
The agreement should use part of V&T Commission’s money to invest in V&T Company to get it capable of operating the train to Mound House this season. A large parking lot should be built in Mound House. Mound House can start thinking about the construction of a western themed village adjacent to the rail depot. There are already antique shops, a candy store, and bars in Mound House, not to mention the brothels. A little work to create a pedestrian mall, maybe even with a dirt road and boardwalks, would be a good investment.
VC has a treacherous (Geiger Grade) or overly long (through Mound House) drive to get up there for tourists visiting Reno. And parking is tight during the busy season. Silver City, the current endpoint of the V&T, doesn’t have much going on. So it only makes sense that the V&T could actually take up the job of operating transportation to get people up the hill and into town from their cars, and back down the hill to their cars. Mound House’s little Old West mall would be something to do while folks wait for the train.
If the Commission wants to look at taking over the operations of the V&T Company eventually anyway, it will need to invest at some point to expand the operations suitably. Since the funding is stalled for the project, it makes sense to get the project operating now. It is well and good to plan on running the train the eventual proposed distance of 18 miles to Carson City. Getting the 11 mile route to Mound House operating this season will allow the Commission and Company to get some experience running a longer route down the hill, raise much needed revenue, and help develop a model for operating in the future.
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