Works of Philadelphia in December 1874. These locomotives were of the 2-6-0 Mogul wheel arrangement, and each weighed 46,000 pounds in running order. Their tenders were designed to carry 1000 gallons of water and 1.5 cords of firewood. Although intended as freight locomotives, they were ornately decorated in the custom of the day. On May 24, 1875, the finished locomo- tives arrived in Carson City, where they were partially disassembled for delivery to Glenbrook by team and wagon. They were both in service distributing steel to the advancing end-of-track by June of that year. On August 24, the railroad was com- pleted and immediately began carrying wood products from Glenbrook to Spoon- er. Glenbrook, Tahoe, and an unnamed 2-6-0 acquired in 1877 made up the entire roster.
Typical operations beginning August 23, 1875, consisted of two locomotives
operating on the mainline between Glen- brook and the Summit with each making six daily trips with six to eight heavily loaded flatcars. With 12 total trips in a single day’s operation, the locomotives hauled no fewer than 300,000 board feet of lumber daily.
The C&TL&F became the largest sup-
plier of lumber and wood for the Com- stock. The new railroad was never formal- ly incorporated, and was variously known as the Lake Tahoe Railroad, the Carson & Tahoe Railroad, or the Lake Tahoe Narrow Gage [sic] Railroad. Regardless, the line was a wholly owned subsidiary of the C&TL&F, which was a closed cor- poration with but a handful of principal officers and directors. The line was oper- ated as an entirely intrastate freight-only railroad, and was totally isolated without interchange to any other line. Thus, the railroad received little interference from outside regulatory agencies.
After the bonanza years of the 1870s, the Comstock’s demand for cord wood and lumber gradually declined. Nevada was also hard hit by the depression of the early 1890s. When all of the avail- able timber at Lake Tahoe had been cut and consumer demand was at an all-time low, the C&TL&F suspended operations of the railroad and sawmills, and the last order for wood was filled on September 28, 1898. While the sawmills and rail- road were silenced forever, the company remained a major dealer in Lake Tahoe real estate until it was finally dissolved in 1947.
To California and Back to Nevada
On December 19, 1898, Duane L. Bliss formed the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation Company to carry tour- ists between Truckee and Tahoe City. The new operation purchased the rail- road assets of the C&TL&F, took up the
OPPOSITE: The restored Glenbrook was posed outside of the Nevada State Railroad Museum on March 30, 2015.
ABOVE: The restoration process resumed in 2011 with an inventory and inspection of all the original parts which had long been in storage.
ABOVE RIGHT: A major repair to the Glenbrook’s boiler included the fabrication and installation of a new rear tube sheet.
RIGHT: Mounted on an electric motor, the Glenbrook’s drive wheels are rotated to facilitate the new valve settings on the cylinders in December 2011.
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