Steam Train Ely Nevada

Stopped to Photograph a retired Richfield gas station on the main street of Ely then turned down a side street and found the truck which had been stuck in the weeds. While photographing the truck a steam locomotive pulling several train cars went by. Found the train station on the other side of town. Ely must have been a major train center in its day and they have done a great job in keeping it up. In addition to the station there is the old water tower, garages where the locomotive is put away for the night, and a large old warehouse on a siding. All of this along with a old Ford delivery truck and a locomotive built in 1917 to plow snow on the tracks. The steam train makes runs carrying passengers. You can even ride in the locomotive and for a price even drive the train.

Steam Train At Wadi Rum

Interior of passenger car

Drove up from the Red Sea to Wadi Rum, there had been a lot of wind and visibility was less than ideal for photography.
Out in the middle of the desert was a steam train and we stopped to investigate. We met the engineer who told us the purpose was to do a reenactment of a 1916 battle. The train complete with flat car with machine guns mounts protected with sand bags would go down the track to a fort and there would be a battle with lots of explosions, men on horseback, lots of gunfire and blood. It had been scheduled at noon but had been rescheduled foe 4PM. He invited us to go along for free so we decided to take the next few hours to explore the desert and come back.That's were we got stuck in the sand, on a paved road. When it's blowing sometimes sand builds up on the road but on a deserted stretch we crested a rise and came to a stop in deep sand across the one lane paved road. Was able to slowly back up but then too much sand was scooped up under the low slung front end and we were stopped a few feet from being free. We were working at digging sand out  that that had built up under the front end when a Bedouin came by in an old truck and used his jack to raise the car and we put rocks under the front wheels so we could drive out.
When we got back to the train the schedule had been moved forward an hour and things looked iffy. We had a couple hour to drive to our hotel in Petra so we headed back, not the roads to be on after dark.

Eureka & Palisade #4

One of the stars of Railfest is this wood fired locomotive from 1875. This locomotive has had a total restoration and got a lot of rail time during Railfest

Presidential Train

The Presidential Train is one of the many steam trains traveling between Durango and Silverton during Railfest 2010

Train to Durango