Nevada Short Line Locomotive at the California State Railroad Museum

Photo by Cliff West

The Nevada Short Line was a short-lived 36-inch gauge railroad built to reach silver mines in Nevada. Established in 1913 and incorporated in 1914, the 12.5-mile railroad featured a switchback and a 6% grade. Nevada Short Line #1 was one of the line’s two locomotives. It is a 2-6-0 Mogul originally built by Baldwin in 1879 as Utah & Northern Railway Company #13. It passed through several owners before it was purchased by the Nevada Short Line in August 1913 and became their #1.The railroad was damaged by flooding in June 1918 and was abandoned on December 31, 1920. The locomotive was sold to a scrap dealer who resold it to the Nevada Central Railroad of Battle Mountain, Nevada, where it became #6. Like the former North Pacific Coast #12, Sonoma, it was acquired by Nevada Central’s general manager J. M. Hiskey and was used at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco, where it last ran in October 1940. In 1941 it was donated to the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society, and was donated to the state of California in 1969. It is new displayed at the California State Railroad Museum’s Railroad History Museum in Sacramento, California.