michael and garys northern nevada road trip

i just returned from another epic road trip. flew to las vegas friday 2/7/20, met up with michael and on saturday morning we drove to death valley for the start of the 9 days of scenery, railroads and circus of las vegas. i will start off with a few from death valley, this thread will keep popping up from time to time as i have almost 9,000 images to cull and process.
first up, a daytime stop at zabriskie point, fixed a broken link



next stop was bad water basin


some of the salt and mineral deposits



on to our hotel, at stovepipe wells, and sunset at mesquite dunes

 

sunday morning saw us rising very early for me and getting to zabriskie point overlook in time to get a parking spot, hike up the paved trail and wait out sunrise, which did not start promising with cloud cover, but rewarded us for sticking it out with about 10 minutes of great light right at the end of sunrise hour






then a drive of the 9 mile artist's palette loop, where we both felt that this would be a spectacular late afternoon shot with sun on the mineral formations but we could not tarry as we had a long drive that day to virginia city nevada

 

Keep them coming! Great stuff as usual @gary!

Looking forward to seeing your work in 2024 @mSummers

 

so on the way 350 miles or so from artists palette to virginia city nevada, we stopped briefly at rhyolite ghost town, out side of death valley national park boundaries, but on the way out via the beatty nevada entrance, i did not take a lot of photos here, because it was overcast, and windy and cold, like my hands are freezing cold. western desolate, cut through you like a knife wind.
the old railroad station


unfortunately due to vandalizing a++holes, most everything in rhyolite is behind a solid fence

not sure why the creating artist picked rhyolite for this, but per michael this was done with live models in a sort of half body casting process, so here it is, the rhyolite last supper sculpture



and yes, look behind the sculpture, from what we saw, outside of las vegas and the reno/tahoe/carson city areas, the rest of nevada is small towns separated by miles of desolate lonely high desert/mountain passes.

 

so monday 2/10/20 saw us on the first of 2 lerro photography photo charters, at the nevada state railroad museum in carson city nevada, i am probably only going to put up about 5 or 6 photos from each of the charters, that way michael can contribute in his time and i won't monopolize the thread, there are many more going up over on my smugmug site, gallery link below my signature.
first up, the inyo #22, a baldwin manufactured 4-4-0 wood burner, built in 1875 for the virginia & truckee, sold to paramount studio in 1937, starred in several movies, including disney's the great locomotive chase in 1956, was at promontory point for several years until a replica could be built, to the nevada state museum in 1978, and fully restored to steam operations in 1983. usually only operated yearly on july 4 and some other selected dates, , but under steam for our charter. the folks at the museum were very friendly and worked hard to maximize the day for us. never thought i would get to see a wood burner under steam, all my others have been coal or oil burners

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url fixed, never realized it went to the old site. so here we have a real rarity, the mckeen car # 22 built in 1910 for the v&t, of approximately 160 rail motorcars built by mckeen, this is the only one still able to move under it's own power, operated by the v&t until 1945, it eventually was used as a diner, found its way to the museum and has been remotored with a small diesel, chain driven. this thing is just plain jules verne looking, with the round porthole windows and the plush interior

 

and here we have the virginia & truckee #25, a baldwin 4-6-0, built 1905, and the first new locomotive bought by the v&t since 1876. pulled the very last passenger train to virginia city in 1938, sold to rko studios in 1941 and has a modest 10 year movie career, one of only 2 locomotives that ran on the original pre preservation v&t, the other being the inyo

 

and here is the glenbrook, a 2-6-0 mogul narrow gauge built by baldwin in 1875 for the carson and tahoe lumber and fluming company, it is a 3 foot gauge engine. it had a twin, #2 the tahoe, both served to haul lumber from the east shore of lake tahoe to spooner summit in the carson range, where the lumber was hauled by the v&t to virginia city to be used in construction, as mine timbers, and boiler fuel, after the area was logged out the owners moved to the west shore of lake tahoe and built a 22 mile interchange line to just east of donner to interchange with the southern pacific at truckee, restored to steam in 2015

 

and one last photo from the museum, the charter organizer got a local western reenactor club to come out and do poses, this is a group of hard eyed lawmen, ready to take on any train robbers after the silver and gold in virginia city

 

tuesday, day one of a two day lerro photography charter on the virginia & truckee railroad, a restored railroad that in its heyday carried gold and silver, from the famed comstock lode, down the hills to carson city for shipment to east and west coast cities. virginia city is uphill, at 6200 feet, so this line has some steep grades. here is a sunrise teaser, of todays star, the v&t # 29, a baldwin 2-8-0 consolidation, built in 1916 for the louisiana and pacific, it is now named the robert c gray. overhauled from 2001 until 2009, FRA ticket now good until 2024

 

working through the high desert sagebrush



and a small train in a big landscape, or steamscape as one fellow rail photographer calls this. outside of gold hill, those are the sierra mountains around lake tahoe in the background, the ones with heavenly, incline village, olympic ski area, formerly known as squaw valley, etc. yes those are the remains of mines into the hillsides

 

virginia & truckee coming at ya, out of tunnel 4 at gold hill nevada, we had such a beautiful day, rich blue western skies, ok we didn't have snow on the ground, but i still was photographing working steam in the rugged sierra madre

GOOD NEWS, PHOTO #6 ACCEPTED AT RAILPICTURES.NET, AND SINCE THEY LOWERED THE ACCEPTANCE THRESHOLD TO 20, I NOW ONLY HAVE TO GET 14 MORE ACCEPTED BY THE SCREENERS AND I TOO WILL BE IN THE OFFICIAL DATABASE

 

going for the late afternoon glint shot, always a favorite for charter patrons

 

and the last post from day 1, this thread will probably be a little silent for a few days, i fly to Albuquerque new mexico thursday morning for the steam powered rotary snowplow charter up on the cumbers & toltec. since the only other one in operating condition that i know of in north america is up in alaska on the white pass & yukon, i thought i would never get the chance to see one in action. but i will be right back at it after i return, finish out this trip, then the rotary charter, and after that segue right into a charter at the end of march on the sierra railroad in jamestown california, of particular interest to this old timer because this engine was the star of petticoat junction, and my pubescent self had a real crush on those girls

 

LOL!!!

 

look at uncle joe, he's moving kind a slow, at the junction. admit it, you sang that in your head

 

@gary, @mSummers, great photos. I was just talking with a friend of mine yesterday and she’s flying into LasVegas and has almost the identical itinerary as yours. Looks like an awesome trip