Gracefully turning towards the nearby Carson City Passenger Depot, trailing passenger cars 18 and 23 of the famous Virginia & Truckee Railway are pictured amidst the lush green hues of the Carson Yards on a bright May day in 1949. Although both later additions to the V&T's impressive passenger coach roster, the two antiquated cars in themselves were a generation apart in their respective dates of construction.

As the last piece of custom built passenger equipment ordered by the Nevada short line, No. 18 was turned out toward the end of 1890 by the well‑known Barney & Smith Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio, as solely a passenger coach. Outfitted with the then popular Miller coup ling hook, the 50 foot 6 inch wooden coach became a common sight at V&T passenger depots as the plush coach was pressed into almost immediate service upon its arrival via the Union Pacific. Shortly after the sale of much of the Virginia & Truckee's dated and unused rolling stock to Paramount Pictures, Inc. in 1937 and 1938 for movie use, No. 18 was divided in halt for combination passenger and baggage use in 1939 and operated almost daily between Reno and Minden until the close of the bonanza rail line. Ravaged by fire in August 1961, while on public display, the charred remains of the venerable coach today awaits much long overdue rebuilding at Carson City.

V&T Mail & Baggage Car No. 23 arrived on the road still lettered as Yosemite Valley Railway No. 107 where the car served less than a decade following its demise from the Texas & New Orleans Railroad for which it was built. Turned out from the prestigious Chicago Shops of the Pullman Car Company in 1911, the steel car was first received at Carson City during late October 1946, weighing 80,700 lbs. Spanning 42 feet 111/8 inches over her coupled steel platforms, the 53,900 lb. body measured 40 feet long inside of which 15 feet 1 inch was committed to postal services. Following limited private use as a traveling yard office car during the 1950's, the trim RPO was purchased in 1968 by the Pacific Locomotive Association, Inc. at Richmond, California, where volunteers have refurbished the car to its YV decor. (It is now located at Niles Canyon, California).

Rising 300 feet behind the two canary coaches is the massive 323 foot long south wall of the road's central Carson City Engine house and Shops. With accommodations to meticulously maintain and stable a fleet of over two dozen steam locomotives of various types and construction, the repair facility was considered by many early Central Pacific employees to be equal to or better than their own significant shops at Sacramento and as a result the Virginia & Truckee serviced not only their own needs but at one time commanded the voluminous special orders of customers throughout the Pacific Coast. 

TEXT BY STEPHEN E. DREW