The condition of the switchman's shack at Hiline Junction pretty much reflects the state of the Nevada Northern Railway from here on north for nearly 130 miles. Abandoned in the early 1980s when the copper mining and smelting industries pulled out, the line has largely been unmaintained save for perhaps a dozen and a half miles of track now used by the museum. Only its extreme remoteness has allowed it to remain in place. In this north-facing shot of Alco #109 approaching the Hiline Switch, you can begin to get an idea what most of the line looks like....just a wide, flat, high desert valley as far as the eye can see.
