Shot in HD for the upcoming video: Unauthorized Biography of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. This video was shot in 2008 while the tracks through tunnel 2 in American Flat were under construction. This is the very first train to run through the tunnel since the salvage run in 1941. I have recently posted other shots of the actual ballast work, with trains going through the tunnel. This is the first shot. Standing to my left, off camera with his own camera and tripod, was Gare Luce or Geocon, someone who should “just work here” but who instead gets politically involved in indefensible things. More on this in the upcoming Unauthorized Biography of the Virginia and Truckee Blu-Ray / DVD coming out in the next few months. Then we see the owner of the REAL (private company, not government project) Virginia and Truckee Railroad, Tom Gray, walk up to see his train make the first tunnel run. Tom is not paying attention, I have to bug him to get out of the shot. We’ve all gotten mad at railfans in our shots, but I can’t hold this one against him. For more info as the upcoming video progresses, see www.trainarts.com and/or www.virginiaandtruckeerailway.com, my sites dedicated to the process. You can also contact me at jim@virginiaandtruckeerailway.com. The Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee Railway is the government agency charged with rebuilding the tracks from Gold Hill to Carson City. Originally budgeted at $10 million, the construction budget is now over $70 million. Their official site is the vtrailway.com site. See their site for a good example of propaganda.
This is a quickly-whipped-out video to show some rough cuts of a cab ride on the Virginia and Truckee #29 steam locomotive, a 2-8-0. We start at Eastgate Siding (aka Dump Road) in Carson City, cross the bridge over highway 50, and run through Mound House up to tunnel 2. Along the way we get an overview of Mound House and Dayton. I have not uploaded anything in a couple weeks, being busy with other projects. I just whipped this one out, there’s no narration or titles. I have included some cuts from “the cutting room floor” that will not make it into a Blu-Ray project I am working on, the Unauthorized Biography of the Virginia and Truckee. In the cab we see Engineer Jerry Hoover and Fireman Ed Gallegos, assisted by pilot-Fireman Jared. Ed, a seasoned fireman on this steam locomotive, is making his first run up the full tracks, so Jared is showing him the ins and outs of the government-sponsored reconstruction tracks from Carson City.
#29 takes a tour around the edge of American Flat. Our apologies for not taking some shots of the flat itself. The train stops short of where existing construction to finish the stage to Moundhouse picks up. We tried, but the wind wouldn’t stop for us.
This video should have shown me following a new passenger car being trucked into the Virginia and Truckee Railroad in Virginia City, Nevada. I was out in Lovelock in the morning and got a shot as the new-old Erie and Lackawanna passenger car passed by with two escorts. Unfortunately, I did something pretty stupid. I assume the car would follow the same route as the previous two car deliveries. On both those deliveries I acted as the rear pilot car and we came down 95-Alternate through …
