V&T Survivor: #25. Topping off its tender cistern at the Nevada State Railroad Museum's water tank is one of the two surviving Virginia & Truckee Locomotives that can still operate. This is the 1905 Baldwin 10-Wheeler #25. She was the third to the last of the V&T engines and the first one that the line had purchased in roughly 30 years. By the early 1900s, the mining business was on the decline in Virginia City, and many of the line's old 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s were pretty worn out and outdated. As the railroad began to pursue business with farming operations that were springing up on the flat-lands south of Carson City they needed some new power for their trains. In 1905, they purchased their first Baldwin 10-wheeler, which was given the number 25. By this time the practice of naming locomotives was no longer in vogue, so the 25 would be known simply by her number. Built as a coal burner, she was converted to burn oil just two years later. The 25 became one of the primary duty engines for the next couple of decades, but fell into disuse as heavier locomotives were acquired. Although her frame and her 60" drivers make her look large, she has a rather small boiler and a gross weight of just 45 tons.
In 1947, the V&T sold her to RKO Studios, where she became a movie star like several of her more ornate sisters. Today, the 25 is preserved at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, where she is maintained in running condition and is steamed up several times each year. The operation depicted here occurred over the 4ht of July weekend in 2022, during a special event called the "Great Western Steam-Up", which celebrated the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Virginia & Truckee Railway. Incidentally, the train consist which you see to the right of the locomotive, is the NSRM's regular excursion consist, which includes a couple of open tourist cars, V&T Caboose-Coach #10, and Nevada Copper Belt Railroad Caboose #3.
