Nevada Steam Transportation Company
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New York papers announce the arrival of a number of road locomotives and trains of wagons destined for the Far West, where they will be employed in the transportation of minerals and general merchandise to replace mule power. The vehicles, which were built in Rochester, England, will be shipped by rail to Wadsworth, Nev. On their arrival there they will at once be put to work on certain central routes in that state as follows: from Austin, down the Reese River Valley to San Antonio, Montezuma, Aleda Valley, and Gold Mountain; from Austin through the Big Smoky Valley, by hot Springs, Jefferson, Jett, and Pea Vine, to Ralston Valley; from Wadsworth, through by Walker Lake to the Virginia Salt Marsh, Belleville, Columbus, Candelaria, and Silver Peak; from Eureka through the Little Smoky Valley to Tybo, Hot Creek Reveille; and from Eureka to White Pine, Ward, and Pioche. The Nevada Steam Transportation Company is the title of the corporation of capitalists who have bought the engines.
Oh, a railroad without a track! Another great experiment in the Nevada desert. (Kind of reminds me of camels in Virginia City.) So, what was their game? According to the attached documents they have the following commitments:
These contraptions cold made a bout 20 miles per day, but the only confirmed use I could find was from Wadsworth to Columbus. Even the, there was a report that a second engine had to save a first engine by bringing out water and wood. But something must have happened because after an initial article in the Reno papers and a very short mention of the project in the Official Bicentennial Book of Nevada, the company seemed to fade into the desert just like the water they proposed to haul! |