Model Railroad Exhibit

During the coming year the Nevada State Railroad Museum will present several model railroad exhibits telling the story of Nevada railroads in the 20^th Century.

An HO-gauge model railroad is being constructed at the museum by Carson City Railroad Association (CCRA) members. Scenery on the layout will depict a generic Nevada landscape suitable as a backdrop for trains of any era.

When this layout is operating, the models present at any given time will represent one era or theme. If it’s 1949, a diesel-powered San Francisco Overland, a V&T mixed train headed by No. 26 and the California Zephyr all might be running. Or, three or four trains representing evolution of motive power and rolling stock might be present at the same time.

An exhibit next to the model railroad utilizes fifty-foot freight-car models to compare sizes of four common model-railroad scales. HO-scale model locomotives and cars, and a G-gauge locomotive comprise four other exhibits:

 “Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-4s in Nevada”;
     (the little-known Nevada career of a famous group of steam passenger Locomotives)

 “Power for Donner Pass/Power for the Modoc Line”
     (Southern Pacific articulated steam locomotives)

“The Most Talked-About Train in America”
     (the California Zephyr).

“The Eureka and Palisade Railroad”
     (featuring a G-gauge model of E&P locomotive No. 4).

The SP steam locomotive exhibits also include photographs of steam

The SP steam locomotive exhibits also include photographs of steam trains in Nevada in the 1940s and 1950s. The California Zephyr exhibit includes timetables and brochures about the train.

Southern Pacific Articulated Locomotives

This exhibit portrays freight trains of 1929, 1948 and 1954 with four classes of steam locomotives. The 1929 train includes 32- and 36-foot wooden freight cars. The 1954 train includes larger, all-steel freight cars. East and westbound trains of Pacific Fruit Express refrigerator cars represent 1948. The trains also include cabooses that date from 1906, 1924 and 1951.

Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-4s in Nevada

Streamlined steam locomotives first entered SP passenger service in 1936. They were painted red, orange and black to match the new San Francisco/Los Angeles Coast Daylight. Eventually there were fifty of these locomotives. As new groups arrived for Daylight service, older ones were reassigned to other parts of SP including Sparks, NV to Ogden, UT.  Photographs in this exhibit show the 4-8-4s in Nevada between 1941 and 1952.

The last SP 4-8-4s arrived in 1943. A photo in the exhibit shows one of them heading the last steam-powered SP passenger train—an excursion special between Sacramento and Reno in October 1958.

Jim Trout and Paul Martinovich, who both are members of FNSRM as well as CCRA, construct scenery for the NSRM model railroad. Photo by Keith Hall.