Track repair begins at Nevada State Railroad Museum

CARSON CITY, Nevada – Repairs to the flood-damaged grounds of the Nevada State Railroad Museum kicked into high gear this week with construction crews working to remove thousands of pounds of sediment, and replace ballast and tracks displaced by January floods. Work crews remove sediment caused by flood waters in January from the tracks outside the Nevada State Railroad Museum Annex on Thursday, May 4. The museum is expecting repairs to be completed in time for the Memorial Day weekend at the end of the month. Guy Clifton/Travel Nevada “We’ve got two companies out there working it right now,” said Dan Thielen, museum director, “one that is removing sediment and the other one that is fixing the railroad.” Heavy rains in January forced Carson City crews to divert water coming from Rhodes Street in an effort to prevent flooding on Carson Street, one of the city’s main north-south thoroughfares. The diversion led to a deluge of water onto the grounds of the railroad museum, damaging the track and flooding into buildings. The property was closed to the public for two months as museum crews and volunteers cleaned the buildings. The main museum building reopened in March, but the museum’s annex and shop have remained closed to the public for safety concerns. Thielen said the work should be completed in time for the Memorial Day weekend at the end of May and that trains will be running with passengers on the loop around the museum grounds. “We are going to run full-scale operations for Memorial Day,” he said. “We’ve been assured they can meet that deadline.” The Nevada State Railroad Museum is open Thursday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, free for children 17 and younger.