09-23-21 Thursday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 23 Ely KOA Journey Ely, NV

09-23-21 Thursday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 23       

Ely KOA Journey-Great KOA with lots of Trees and very clean camp spots

Ely, NV

Site # 20

Jeeps in Campground: 8

Drive Time: —-

Miles: —-

Today is Nevada Northern Railway Museum Day. We slept in a bit and enjoyed the nice weather this morning. 

We headed for Ace Hardware. Barry needed a bolt for the Jeep. A bracket that holds the break line to the left front tire fell off somewhere. We also were able to find a taller step for getting in and out of the coach. This Ace Hardware was awesome. It had all kinds of stuff and was a pretty large store. I wish our Ace was like this. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Next was the Railroad Museum. It was only $6 a piece. The whole rail yard and area is the museum. It was constructed between 1905-06. The railroad to Ely was built to serve the mining area. Gold, Silver and Copper was discovered around Ely. The rail yard has earned numerous TripAdvisor  awards over the years. For my dear friend Renee Toomey it was was also used for Willie Nelson’s movie "Once Upon a Texas Train." It has been featured on The History Channel shows “Modern Marvels” and “American Restorations.” During the year they offer special train rides so if your going to visit check their list of events. They often sell out. 

We started our walking tour from the ticket office. We went into the upstairs museum. It has 6 rooms that for the most part were left as is when the railroad stopped serving the public in 1983. The history of the Nevada Northern Railway in Ely is extensive. We spent a bit of time reading the information in the rooms. This Velocipede was in the downstairs museum. I loved this thing. 

Machine Shop

The cool thing about this place is that you can walk everywhere. We went through the machine shop which is still a working shop. One of the train workers was there and answered our questions. The smell of oil, solvents  and diesel was prevalent. We could hear a train off in the distance that was getting closer. Soon we were able to see black smoke shooting it’s way out of the smokestack. The train worker told us it was Engine 81 coming into the building connected to the machine shop. We were standing right next to the track and he told us we only had to move back about 6 or 9 feet. WE COULD STAY RIGHT THERE AND WATCH THE TRAIN COME IN. Talk about exciting.

Machine Shop

Once the train was right next to us the engineer released more steam. We stayed as the engineers hooked up a caboose and pulled it out of the engine storage. What was even better was this was only the 2nd time Engine 81 was out. They have been working on her for 5 years so they could run her again. Today they were hooking her up to a few other cars and try to run her up the mountain. The first time they had her out was this past weekend. She was having trouble with slippage so they worked on her the past 4 days and now was the day for another test. We were the only people out by the tracks and felt fortunate to see this beauty at work. I’ve posted the video of her coming in and other photos. Here is the link to a video. You may have to copy and paste it into your browser. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L8OMJrhuic2oKMK1imLjEXl0ZqhAIW5P/view?usp=sharing

After Engine 81 left we walked into the building next to the machine shop. This is where they store the engines. When you stand right next to these beauties you realize how big they are. We were lucky enough to run into another gentleman and he spent about 30 minutes with us. We talked about the history of the place, the maintenance they perform on the engines. and how long it takes to tear an engine apart. Every 15 years they have to do this for safety and engine inspections. Fascinating conversation. 

Hot Day and lots of water needed

Freight unloading area

Engine 40

Snow Plow

              

We walked around a few other buildings and headed back to the ticket office where the gift shop was. Bought a few trinkets and headed out. On the way back we stopped at a store to see if they had some steps to get in and out of the RV and yes they did. 

We had dinner at the Jailhouse Steakhouse.  Our booth had jail bars in front of it, novel idea. Barry ate all his NY steak and I could only eat part of my 1/2 rack of back ribs. My ribs where so tender and Barry said his steak was very tasty. Our waiter, Roger, was excellent. The restaurant only has 11 booths and glad we came early, it’s a popular place. 

No fire tonight. We were tired and hit the bed soon after we returned. Enjoy the photos everyone. 

Copyright © 2021 by Jacqueline Threet Henderson, Jacqueline's Jaunts. All rights reserved.