Nevada State Train Museum

July 5 

The fire in the hills behind the house in Fish Springs looked pretty calm in the morning, so we loaded up our kids and headed for the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City.

Who doesn't love a an old fashioned steam engine? There's one in every old cowboy movie it seems, and they show up often in all the mystery and spy movies. Many of those famous "actors" are now living here, in the Carson City train museum, and we had a ride on one of them.


Our grandson Jax loves trains, and he enjoyed seeing the real thing he’s been seeing in his picture books. 

We were barely in the door when he latched on to the small wooden train set up in the lobby.




The museum houses lots of restored cars and engines, well presented with historic information about the individual train cars as well as the history of trains within the state of Nevada, and in some cases, the names of the movies they've appeared in. 

Trains played an important role in the development of Nevada's mines, and are still important in the state. The route from Carson City up to Virginia City, the historic silver mining city in the mountains, has been restored and there are several opportunities to ride the train over that route.

There's  also a real steam train to ride around the museum property. There are several choices of cars to ride in, some open and some more closed in so in any weather the passengers can be comfortable

My favorite of all the restored cars was the McKeen Motor Car. 

Such an unusual example of engineering! 

In searching for engineering solutions to the strength needed to build the car as designed the knowledge of boat and plumbing experts was incorporated, resulting in a machine reminiscent of a diving bell, and worthy of a Jewels Vern novel.

It manages to look very Victorian, yet modern at the same time. Today's Steam-Punk fan would feel right at home in this train car. It is operable and does run fairly often, so there are opportunities to experience this unusual and elegant form of transportation. 

The restoration of the car is impeccable. Volunteers spent many hours and the results are amazing. All the brass has been reproduced, and the light fixtures, while appearing authentic, have been changed from the original gas to electric without altering or harming the design.


The train departs from an original, restored, depot building, and the volunteer conductor and engineers all dress their parts. (You can buy little engineers overalls in the gift shop - guess what Jax went home with!)

The train travels two circuits around the museum property, which gives the passengers time to view many of the historic rail cars waiting to be restored, as well as a railroad turntable and other pieces of railroad equipment. This is a really wonderful experience for kids, of all ages! 
   More train photos here.

We had a nice lunch at nearby Schatts bakery just a few blocks away, picked up a few baked goods, and then headed back to Fish Springs, with Jax making train noises in the back seat all the way. 

We were hoping to see the Bison fire had been contained by the time we arrived back in Fish Springs. Unfortunately the famous Washoe Zephyr had no mercy on the firefighters, and the fire had spread to the northeast, by this time the acreage increasing to an estimated 17,000 acres. 

In the evening we all settled in to the Finch’s elevated deck, a good place to view the smoke and the flames, which become visible in the dark. 

The local fire department prints up commemorative T-shirts for large events and neighbor Aaron and his father gifted several of us with one of them. 

The pattern we’d been observing over the first two days of the fire is pretty consistent. After sunset the winds calm down, the humidity levels come up, and the fire settles down. The winds pick up every day around noon, gusting up to 25 mph at times, and often changing direction for brief periods which make fighting the fire very difficult. 

Each morning we looked hopefully at the hills that had been blazing the night before, thinking the cool, damp morning conditions would give the firefighters a break, and then, the winds would again whip up the flames and the fire was off and running. 

In the photo at right, the small glow to the far right is where the fire started, but by the time this was taken the winds had pushed the flames to the east (photo is looking south from the Finch's deck.)

As the wildfire grew it became the focus of everyone’s attention. We watched planes and helicopters deliver retardant and water to the fire. By evening it looked as though they had a pretty good handle on the fire, again. It seemed so in the morning too. 

Fortunately the winds were cooperative in direction if not intensity and the fire circled around the small community of Fish Springs, to the northeast. The firefighters managed to keep it out of any residential areas in the foothills, though a few mining buildings were lost. 
As we left Fish Springs, on July 9, the fire had moved clear around to the east, over several ridges, into the juniper and sage forest beyond. It was estimated to have consumed about 25,000 acres, and was still burning.

UPDATE: See the Inciweb map and report for the details of the fire.The Finchs' place is just about in the middle of the loop road labeled Pinenut Road. As of July 14, 2013 the fire was 100% contained, and the cost, to date, of fighting this fire is $7,729,660. That doesn't begin to describe the lost forest cover, or the archeological damage, as much of the acreage is Washoe ancestral land.