V&T RR Historical Society Conference report

Cliff_Jennings · October 12, 2025, 12:11am

We’re finishing day 3 of our 4-day annual conference, and I wanted to share a few items.

I was able to borrow and display three F-scale / F-gauge V&T car models from the NV State RR Museum, built by David Frey, designed by Al Pomeroy, and produced by Iron Creek Shops. They’re stunning models, and got lots of attention.

I did a model-making talk on my V&T ore cars, and also displayed them.

For our regular “Friday movie night,” a new 1-hour documentary on the V&T by Hunter Lohse was debuted. His work is amazing, since he’s able to discover and incorporate many private or otherwise unknown footage, which is often in color. No-one at the conference, and this includes the best V&T historians, had seem this amazing V&T footage.

Since the films are generally silent, Hunter creates the audio from his large library of railroad sound clips. He has an extensive list of productions, all available for free on YouTube. Maybe you’ll find one for your fave.

The talks have been excellent, such as a detailed review of the V&T’s depots done by the NV State dude in charge of historical landmarks (who’s also a big V&T fan), Jean-Guy Dube. And a detailed view of the route of the Bodie and Benton by a leading NV railroad historian, Lawrance Meeker. Past talks have delved into the C&C, DS&CV, CP, NCO, Sutro Tunnel, and other railroads or industries that touched the V&T.

The conference is great, always located at the Gold Dust in Carson, where they give a nice deal on rooms. Thursday night is the modeler’s workshop, and Friday-Saturday have the sessions, with a banquet and main talk on Saturday night (which I’m about to go to). The vendor / display room is fun, and the silent auction is always great.

Sunday is the field trip, which tomorrow will be at NSRM, seeing the newly reconstructed and super-beefy V&T engine transfer car, and riding behind the narrow-guage Glenbrook of the Carson & Lake Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Co.

When in Carson for the conference, there’s opportunity to ride the V&T (of course), see Virginia City and experience the Comstock, see a number of other interesting sites, and enjoy the high desert and mountain views.

The 4-times a year journal is top notch; the conference is fantastic; and the comaradarie is wonderful. Especially if you’re interested in investigating a certain sort of historical western railroad thing, because there will be folks able and eager to share and help, or know those who are.

So if you’re into early western railroading, and have at least a small bit of interest in the V&T or its cousins, please consider joining our group.

https://www.vtrrhs.org/index.html

Cliff

Deneh · October 12, 2025, 1:18am

Thanks so much, Cliff. I really miss my home. I spent most of my life around Carson City, Minden and Dayton. Seeing this video brings back so many memories of a simpler time of growing up in this area. I was there watching a lot of these places disappear into history.
Living in Missouri, that is my home now, is not quite the same. It will never have the charm and history that I grew up with.
God Bless!

Cliff_Jennings · October 12, 2025, 4:40am

I totally agree, Bruce. I always feel at home when I’m out here, though I didn’t grow up here. It’s a great place.

Cliff_Jennings · October 12, 2025, 9:04pm

To conclude my shameless plugging for the V&TRRHS, the conference ended, as always, with a Sunday morning field trip. We’ve gone all over the place around the Comstock & V&T, generally with special permissions to see depots and other sites which aren’t normally or often open to the public.

Today we saw the V&T combine #20, recently acquired from the Southern CA Railway museum and brought back home this last summer. It’s in great shape, considering her age, and will undergo full restoration.

In this video you’ll see her being brought out into the daylight, by the gorgeous Glenbrook.

After that effort, here’s the Glenbrook being turned to a track holding pair of open-air cars for our excursion trip around the NSRM loop.

If you want to see more of that, and of our trip on the McKeen Car, I just uploaded 12 videos onto my channel.

Also today, we saw the almost-complete V&T engine transfer car (being restored by NSRM), which brought narrow gauge locos (mainly from the C&C) from a loading ramp in Mound House, NV to the V&T’s facilities in Carson, for maintenance & repair.

This car was also used to transport the Joe Douglass, whose railroad (the DS&CVRR) connected with the C&C just northeast of Mound House in Dayton. The Joe is being cosmetically improved, with the addition of the rear pilot which was installed as first received (but removed after DS&CVRR years).

When both are done, the Joe will be placed on the transfer car, upon which the loco was transported, a number of times, between Mound House and Carson.

I made a model of the Joe a few years back, and look forward to doing the same thing, in miniature, because I was able to acquire, at the conference, an F-scale / Standard guage Iron Creek Shops model of this very car. Here’s the ICS model, built by David Frey:

And here are the kit parts. So many castings, it’s quite heavy.

Also in the shop is the V&T Inyo, stripped naked and undergoing full boiler rebuilding.

Here’s a clip of what she usually looks like at the museum.

Cliff