Crookedest Railroad Turns New Bend
Nevada and Jim Clark team up to save the Virginia & Truckee.
By: Jana Bommersbach 02/01/2008
When completed in 2009, the new V&T line will closely follow the original right-of-way for an exciting 17-mile ride. Jim is very certain it's going to be a success.
Since Virginia City gets more than one million visitors a year, Jim believes quite a few of them will want to ride in these beautiful rail cars. Now Jim doesn't expect it to provide the kind of return its original owners earned in the late 19th century—investors made $100,000 a month! He laughs at that figure, just as he laughs when he remembers it took 1,500 workmen, mainly Chinese, a little over a year to build the original line, while it is taking hundreds of volunteers decades to bring it back.
"This will be profitable and a great asset to the area's economy and history," he says flatly.
He's particularly pleased that the State of Nevada, which created the foundation on which he serves, is so hot about this project. "The government is completely behind it," he says. So are many private donors and enthusiasts who know this piece of history is not only worth saving, but also worth repeating.
Promoter Steven Saylor thinks the foundation's next fundraiser "will draw visitors like bears to honey. It'll get 'em fired up about railroading in general and our train and communities in particular. Before you know it, money will be pouring in like the Carson River flows in the spring." The fundraiser, an international art expo called Railway Reflections, will be held July 17 through August 17.
If you attend, look for those proud parents from the foundation as they show off the beautiful locomotives and cars of a railroad they're bringing back to the glory of its youth 139 years ago.
Jim Clark will be there, looking probably proudest of all. After all, he's earned it.
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