Bending the lead tracks rather than building a roundhouse makes the Virginia and Truckee Railroad Shops a unique maintenance structure
The Virginia and Truckee railroad shops in Carson City, Nevada are the most impressive remainder of the short line ore-hauling railroad. The railroad began in 1868, when the Nevada legislature gave a charter to the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, and financing had been arranged. Early in 1869, work began on grading, and by the end of the year the railroad was operational, though it did not reach Virginia City until early in 1870. [1]
The first shops of the railroad were in Virginia City, but by 1872, Superintendent Henry Marvin Yerington was urging that the proposed new shops be located in Carson City. Construction on the structure began in December 1872 and the shops were reported to be “in full operation” by February, 1874.
The railroad shops continued operation into the 1940s. In December 1948, the railroad, then in its final decline, made a study of the building which ended in the recommendation that a new steel machinery shop be erected to replace the older building. Among the reasons given were that the “roof trusses are in bad shape, need repairs; roof is all rotted out in spots due to age, smoke and weather action, too large for any operation of company; impossible to keep warm in winter at any reasonable cost.”
In 1950, however, the Interstate Commerce Commission after extended hearings, authorized the abandonment of the railroad, and in December of that year the V & T shops at Carson City were offered for sale.
[1] These records are part of the documentation made during the latter half of 1972 and the summer of 1973 in a project undertaken by the Historic American Buildings Survey in cooperation with the Nevada State Park System to record structures in Carson City and nearby areas. The project was under the general supervision of John Poppeliers, chief of Historic American Buildings Survey. Eric R. Cronkhite, administrator, Nevada State Park System, and Mrs. Marshall Humphreys of the Nevada Landmarks Society assisted the HABS recorders in Nevada. Professor Harley J. McKee, supervisory architect, National Park Service, selected the subjects and provided architectural data for the sixteen Carson City structures which were recorded. Historical documentation for these buildings was prepared by S. Allen Chambers, Jr., architectural historian, Historic American Buildings Survey. Project Supervisor for the 1973 Nevada Summer Team, which produced the measured drawings, was Robert L. Hartwig of Harvard University. Student assistant architects were John T. M. Creery (University of Utah), Robert P. Mizell (University of Florida), and Jack W. Schafer (University of Cincinatti) . Photographs were made by Aaron A. Gallup of Sacramento, California.