Page 7 - NMRA Roundhouse November-December 2019

entire 7.5 mile trip towards the wye. No. 40, not built for this specific portion of the line put on quite a show with only two coaches behind.Woosh! Smoke and darkness enveloped the cab with only the few in cab lights breaking through the darkness as we traveled several hundred feet through tunnel one.
Paralleling Highway 50, the loneliest road in America, Con, Angie, and I began to talk of what drew us to railroads, how long they had been involved, and where they started out. It is times like these even as a photographer it is best to put the camera down and soak it all in.There is no picture you are going to take to create a memory like rambling on with the crew of The Steptoe Valley Flyer and being “one of the guys”. It is an aesthetic not able to be captured by simply looking through a viewfinder, but instead imersing yourself within a world no longer able
to be seen on a day to day basis.Who would’ve known that a trip to the middle of nowhere sought a meaning more than just living behind a lens, rather to put
the camera down and savor the living history you were a part of. Within these moments looking out the cab windows, I couldn’t help but think how in the 1940s, this was an engineer’s office. Sitting in
the left hand seat of the engine my mind began to wander on the crews who sat in the seat before me, flying across the high desert looking out from their “office” on a daily occurrence.Whether you were the engineer on the Daylight, or fireman on the Virginia Creeper, the view from the cab was a commonplace for the brethren of the railroad.The scenery could be dif- ferent, but the history of that view from the office window shared a deeper mean- ing among those who lived in the cab.
As we negotiated the wye at Keystone, the sun began to duck behind the
mountains, and the photographers we left behind in Ely had caught up to us in their cars to chase our return trip.The return trip was all downhill, which meant skillful breaking by Angie, and a break for Con who was shoveling most of the way up. In between ringing the bell for grade cross- ings, Angie and Con taught me about the Nathan Injectors and how to operate them.They were even able to coerce me into throwing a couple scoops of coal into the firebox, assuring me I wouldn’t screw up their fire because they needed to bank the engine over anyway (Need- less to say I was far from being a natural).
Darkness was cast across Robinson CanyonasweexitedTunnel1forthelast time only two miles outside of Ely, as pho- tographers still pursued from Highway 50. I once again picked up my camera from the floorboard to catch the firebox glow as coal was thrown in. Soon, the lights of Ely were right outside our window. “Your friend is going to be so mad at you,” Angie said from the right hand seat as we pulled in on the ladder track in East Ely. My trav- el partner Dan Drennen lingered from a few tracks over.
“Angie. Mind if we make his day and get him up here while you put her to bed?”
“Sure!” Angie replied as I leaned out the gangway waving him up the ladder to join us as we dumped the cars off and dropped ash.The look on Dan’s face was worth the whole trip out.The opportu- nity to share what everyone loved was what it is all about, it’s why we all love what we do. From taking photographs to replicate history, or preserving that history to keep it alive, everything came full circle on that brisk February eve.
As Con opened the ash pans the last light of day had faded into darkness.We both shook hands and thanked the crew for everything.We were only half way done with the weekend, but if this had been the end, I would have been satisfied. Not for the photos I had taken, or the thrill
of a cab ride, but for the lesson that us
as photographers should realize. Don’t always live through the lens, but instead, take time to savor the moment in history you are a part of.
The Nevada Northern Railway still
holds over 28 miles of original mainline from Highline Junction in the North
to Keystone (near the mines at Ruth)
in the South, along with all the origi-
nal equipment and buildings in Ely. For photographers it truly is the spectacle of steam railroading in the modern era.The main facilities remain untouched by the modern era of technology. In February, the railroad sponsors two weekend pho- to charters with all of their equipment, running the entire length of the line with multiple consists, and plenty of amazing photo opportunities.
Johnathan Riley
December 2019 - ROUNDHOUSE 7