Trains, mines, ghost towns, more, in Nevada!

[Ray Dunakin]

I've posted a pictorial account of my recent Nevada-Mojave camping trip on my website...

Nevada Trip 2009 Part One:

   http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Trip_2009_Part_One.html


I've divided this account of my trip into four parts to keep the page load times short. You can click through from page to page, or jump to a specific page.

There are many photos of interest to modelers and railfans. A lot of the buildings and equipment I saw would make great subjects for scale models.

Some of the interesting sites I visited include the ghost towns of Delamar, Minerva, Palisade, Ruby Hill, Tybo, Warm Springs, and Carrara.

I visited several historic small towns and "near-ghosts", such as Amboy, Death Valley Junction, Pioche, Tonopah, Goldfield, Carlin, Caliente, and Ely.

I also explored various abandoned mines and mining camps -- the Everett Mines, the Monkeywrench Mine, the Wide Awake Mine, and the St. Lawrence Mine.

Many of the sites were once served by railroads, and some still have railroad related structures, equipment or artifacts. And of course, there's the fabulous Nevada Northern Railway Museum in Ely, where I photographed and videotaped 2-8-0 #93 in action and at the station.

I've added a page for vintage machinery and vehicles:

   http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Vintage_Machinery.html

Here you'll find detailed photos of some of the interesting old mining equipment I've seen, including an amazing steam-powered drilling rig built in the late 1800's. There's also a battered International Harvester dump truck, and a small John Deere crawler-type tractor, plus an aerial bucket tram, mine lifts, ore cars, and a horse-drawn ore wagon.

Along the way I encountered and photographed a lot of wildlife, including bats, lizards, deer, pronghorn antelope, and a herd of rare bighorn sheep.

The weirdest site I visited was a 3000' wide nuclear sinkhole, site of the 1968 Project Faultless underground nuclear bomb test. It's very strange to walk around over Ground Zero, knowing that somewhere below is a vast radioactive cavern!

Anyway, check out the links above and read the whole story. (Let me know if there are any broken links.)

Enjoy!

[hotrainlover]

Thanks do much for these pictures.  They are expertly done.  I have always wanted to see these type of mines!

[Ray Dunakin]

Just a quick note... I wasn't happy with the navigation on my site, so I reworked it. Now, if you're on the Nevada trip page and click one of the links to specific historical sites, it'll open the page for that site in a new window. That way, you won't have to keep jumping back to the trip page to continue. I also did this for the links on the Ghost Towns and Mines page, the Vintage Machinery and Vehicles page, and on my In-ko-pah RR page.