New V&T rail line is 'worth its weight in gold'

At the Carson City station, the people line up to board the newly restored V&T railroad. Once aboard, the locomotive engine steams up and the train begins to creep up the track toward Virginia City. Some people head for the gaming car while others relax in the dinner car. A group of schoolchildren on a field trip are getting a lesson on the history of the area. Others just sit back and admire the unique scenery and moving colors of boomtown Nevada.

For Janice Ayres, president of the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation and the governor's representative on the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V&T Railway, these types of daydreams cleared a huge hurdle Thursday as bids for the construction of a section of track over the formidable Overman Pit began and the vision of a totally reconstructed V&T railroad running from Carson City to Virginia City moved a few railroad ties closer to reality.

"The low bid of $3.79 million is much less than any of us had anticipated," Ayers reported.

While this doesn't mean that the Reno-based Contri Construction firm who made the bid will get the contract, Ayres is confident of their record and hopes to see work beginning as early as this summer.

The job involves extending the existing 2.5-mile section of the V&T that runs from Virginia City to Gold Hill all the way to the historic American Flat area, once the site of the prosperous American City, a boomtown with a life cycle that went bust after just two years.

Ayres Slays Naysayers

Ayres, along with countless volunteers, has been working on getting the project moving since 1999, despite what she termed a large force of "naysayers" - critics who said the project stall like a locomotive with an empty tender.

"A rebuilt V&T would be worth its weight in gold," she said, calling out its tremendous potential for creating jobs and bolstering the area's economy.

"It'll be the biggest attraction to hit Northern Nevada," she said. "It'll be a great stream of revenue.

"There's nothing like it in the state. They can build all those New Yorks and Mirages they want in Las Vegas, but we have the real history up here."

After construction, the next big hurdle will be creating rolling stock.

"We already have $50,000 set aside for to refurbish old railcars plus we just got an $800,000 grant through the work of Senator Harry Reid," she said. "We're beginning to see some blue sky on this thing."

Currently, the stretch of the V&T that runs from Virginia City to Gold Hill carries approximately 70,000 riders a year.

Based on a "Regional Input-Output Measurement System" calculation tool developed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the estimated positive economic effect for the railroad would be $34.7 million and 750 jobs from construction and related activity in the first years.

It predicts some 300 jobs and $11.7 million generated annually at peak ridership of 160,000 people a year, a number that Ayers sees as conservative.

- Contact reporter Peter Thompson at pthompson@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1215.

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