Okay, I've had a bit of time to flesh out a basic idea with a couple friends of mine that can help out with local history...
Prospectors at Manhattan, NV struck silver in the mining boom of 1867. Talk among locals almost immediately turned to the iron rails drilling high into Donner Pass to the far west, and by the completion of the Pacific railroad in 1869, talk was strong in the town about building north.
In 1879, narrow-gauge rails started south from Battle Mountain on the Pacific mainline. In turn, several Manhattan investors, backed by Boston financiers, founded the Washoe Valley Railway to link Manhattan and the mills springing up on Peavine Creek north to Austin. Construction began westward almost immediately, and by the end of 1879, the first ore cars trundled across the alluvial desert to the first mill in what is now a national monument at the fringe of Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
Nothing went to plan. Deliveries trickled south, and by 1881 there was still no progress northward. To make matters worse, the UP took over the NCRR and arranged aggressive negotiations with the millers at Peavine. Silver started piling up at Austin while the WVRR entered into the fray and further delayed construction.
By 1882 it became clear that no agreement could be reached, and the WVRR turned its sights away from Austin. Instead, they looked for an expanded market and direct link to the Central Pacific. They surveyed a route southwest around Mt. Ardivey towards the mining town of Berlin. By 1884 the road had pushed north into the town of Berlin and was shipping ore south to the mills, then returning the bullion back north and taking it by wagon to the CP main. A further extension the following year reached a mining complex in Shamrock Canyon.
The railroad slogged through the late 1880s up through Burnt Cabin Summit and the Broken Hills. 1891 saw the road's arrival at Middlegate, and the incorporation of Sand Mountain Quarry, Ltd., which promptly received a large spur. In the next four years, the line progressed through Salt Wells and reached the town of Fallon, and finally built a junction with the CP mainline(by then SP operated) in 1895. The SP had been planning to connect Fallon, and the huge quantities of money flowing into the WVRR for its excellent cutoff both disrupted planned service and annoyed the SP. They were particularly disagreeable in their interaction, and after an accident on the mainline, the WVRR nearly lost its connection to the main at Humboldt Slough.
The WVRR was determined that the Pacific mainline had reached the tipping point. No sooner did the Western Pacific publish its progress rapidly approaching Sulphur and Gerlach than the WVRR began racing north as well. By 1903, silver and grain flowed nearly eighty miles north from Fallon to the new Sulphur depot. Additionally, through trains linked both mainlines to the popular mining regions in the heart of the Silver State.
More was on the way. 1904 saw gold strikes at Bullfrog and Tonopah, and the WVRR had huge resources at its back. The line reached booming Tonopah in time for a dual celebration with the ingenious Tonopah Railroad, and thanks to an experienced chief engineer, the WVRR survived the flooding that crippled the TRR. Whatever the case, new gold was flowing north into the pockets of the two silver giants at Manhattan and Virginia City.
From 1904 to 1913, many new roads entered the southern scene - Senator Clark of SPLA&SL greatness founded the Las Vegas & Tonopah to form a southern bridge, a rich Borax miner formed the Tonopah & Tidewater from the ATSF mainline at Ludlow, the Bullfrog Goldfield spanned the heart of gold country from Rhyolite to Goldfield, and the TRR became the Tonopah & Goldfield. Few of these roads ever made money, and the successful T&T made most of its money from borax operations to the south.
Finally, in a 1913 struggle, the LV&T and BGRR combined their two mainlines to eliminate dual traffic in the north. The LV&T was stuck with an unprofitable mainline from Rhyolite to Vegas, while the BGRR finally turned a profit. The LV&T turned out the T&T from BGRR operations, but the WVRR also took an interest, and negotiated for trackage rights into Beatty.
The USRA was a catalyst of failure for the Tonopah region. the LV&T managed to get itself kicked out of the USRA, and all freight from LA routed instead over the T&T. To escape the foundering company, the tiny BGRR approached the WVRR. The larger road merged the BGRR and initiated a full service into Beatty, driving home the final blow for the stricken LV&T. At the end of 1918, the federal government spent a short time operating the LV&T, but inevitably the road went up for auction.
Many LV&T locomotives went to the Northwestern Pacific and the San Diego & Arizona, but the line and remaining stock all went to the WVRR, which knew an opportunity when it saw one. They established a fleet of McKeen gas-electric railcars south of Beatty, and ran the operation at a small loss through the 1920s and 1930s.
Finally, in the mid-late 1930s, business was looking up. A new fleet of 2-8-2s pictured above, plus a set of larger 4-8-0s built to the Harriman Common Standard, entered service up north with new steel-framed cars to replace the now-illegal freight stock. The Hoover Dam opened in the south, and an exploding Vegas suddenly merited through passenger and freight service from the north. Finally, the town of Gabbs sprung up around the new Basic Magnesium quarry opposite failing Berlin.
EMD's fantastic F-units started sweeping the nation in the 1940s, while the WVRR still used heavyweight stock behind their stoic high-drivered Mastodons. When the 1949
Nevada Thoroughbred finally introduced a streamlined diesel-hauled train, many company officials argued that it would never repay its cost, and they were more or less right. However, there was no old Western pride underneath. By the end of the decade, F7s and ALCo. RS1s were hauling new steel hoppers over the branch spurs to Gabbs, Sand Mountain Quarry and Round Mountain.
The
Nevada Thoroughbred lasted until 1966, when finally an exasperated WVRR cut service down to a modest thrice-a-week service along the mainline. Gabbs lost passenger connection, and even the old mainline to Manhattan and Peavine had almost no passenger service with the through mainline. Towns like Rhyolite and Bullfrog were no more than crumbled remains through which the dusty diesel-electric trains passed, and even Beatty - still a living town - had almost zero rail activity.
Periodic mining operations near Gabbs, Round Mountain, Sand Mtn. Quarry and Manhattan spurred the railway into the late 20th century, until finally the network had to be pruned. The last mining left Gabbs in 1996, and so did the railway. Service stopped altogether in Manhattan for a short while, and Beatty never pulled its weight in traffic. With death imminent, the old line turned to a final vestige: tourism.
No. 16
Desatoya was never sold, and the WVRR restored it quickly with the aid of the Nevada State Railroad Museum. A new boiler arrived and passed inspection easily. An original oil headlight had to be replicated, and it was made with an unobtrusive incandescent bulb housed in the lamp glass. Finally, several heavyweight coaches, three sleepers and an original obs arrived on scene. Soon, antique ALCo centuries, road switchers and the flagship
Desatoya took trains from Reno and Vegas back into Berlin-Icthyosaur State Park, historic Beatty and Manhattan, and the unique semi-modern townships of Tonopah and Goldfield. A new spur let the impromptu railcar
Desert Forest access an advantageous view of the stunning Goldfield car forest, and the flagship
Desatoya wears the nameplats of its brother
Black Rock during Burningman.
But enough of that. Any of this may be subject to change, but the WVRR is pretty well-established for now.