rolling stock information wanted:


windbag

New Member
I'm building (at least one) Nevada Northern Alco RS3, but having a devil of a time finding any information on the Nevada Northern's diesel era rolling stock, if any. Anyone got a suggestion for distinctive late 1960s and later rolling stock photos? HO scale.
 
Howdy, windbag...gee, that doesn't sound very nice somehow. :)

The Nevada Northern never owned an RS-3. The only diesel the NN ever owned was an SD-7 purchased new in 1952. All other diesels were owned by the Kennecott Copper company (KCC) and were mostly RS-2's and GE 70 tonners that worked the pit. There was also on RSD-4 that was used for heavy haulage from the pits but it was never very successful at that. Here's a picture of the RS-2's:

NN%2031.jpg


The NN SD-7 was used exclusively for line hauls from East Ely to Cobre. Depending in the volume of traffic, a "leased" KCC RSD-4 was MU'd to the SD-7for the run.

NN%20401%20-%20201%20-%20B%20copy.jpg


The RSD-4 was mostly used on the ore line to haul ore trains to the concentrator at Ruth. This is a picture of an RS-2 and RSD-4 together.

NN%2030.jpg


The only RS-3 used on NN trackage came from the Ray Mine operations in Arizona, a KCC subsidiary, and was transferred to the KCC in 1970. It was only used on KCC trackage and never operated for the NN. It was sold to the Los Angeles Division of Water and Power sometime in the early 80's and donated back the NN museum in 1991. That's the RS-3 that operates at the museum today. While it has a short history with the KCC and was certainly a part of the Kennecott empire, it was never an NN engine. I haven't been to the museum since they acquired and rehabilitated the RS-3 but, if it doesn't look like this photo, it's pure fantasy.

NN%2047.jpg
 
Thanks for the pictures! The photos I've come across are after the museum took over, and show what I thought was RS3s lettered for Nevada Northern. I acquired the Alcos to give me some variety from Athearn EMD locos on a switching layout.
 
The one Alco they have is indeed an RS-3, it's just that it was never a Nevada Northern engine. If it's the #109 you're modeling, the color is right but the lettering for Nevada Northern is fantasy. OTOH, the lcomotive exists today even though the real NN is gone so go ahead and model away. :)
 
Paul,
That's the #109 after it was acquired by the museum. It never ran in NN colors in revenue service. The museum repainted it in correct KCC colors but has lettered it for the Nevada Northern. Like I wrote, it wasn't protoypical for the real NN but it exists today so a model with NN lettering is prototypical today. :)
 
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The paint job on the Kennecott Alcos looks easy enough. Orange, but not too orange.

What about rolling stock? The only thing I've seen is a very late period HO Berwick boxcar, and the early steam stuff, which is too early for my interests. ???
 
I'm not sure what I'd call that orange. When it's new, it's pretty bright, just a little south of international orange. The desert sun fades the paint pretty fast so I think something like reefer orange would be about right for an engine that has been in service for a while.

Modeling NN freight cars is easy - they only had one type, at least of the conventional variety. They had about six hundred wood and steel composite ore cars that were hauled by pit locomotives to the assembly yard at Copper Flat. There, the heavier power hauled the ore to McGill concentrator, where the ore was turned into blister copper. Even though the mill concentrated 20,000 tons a day, a very small amount of blister copper was produced from each ton of ore. Only three trains a week made the trip from McGill Jct. to Cobre, where the blister copper was sent on to Utah for smelting.

The blister copper was carried in high side 50 foot gondolas. I think the NN had about 45 of these and they were the only interchange freight cars they ever owned. The ones I saw in the late 70's were oxide red and had reporting marks of NN and the car number and data. There was one NN caboose and it was a standard International Car Company wide vision variety painted blue with a yellow roof. Again, just NN reporting marks and data, nothing fancy. That was it. The railroad had a few wood boxcars in the yard that were used in work train service along with a pretty decrepit outside braced caboose. There were a few old single dome tank cars that were used to store heating oil for the concentrator. When the NN was still a going concern, that was about it. The cars you see at the museum now have all been bought from other roads and repainted in NN colors. Almost all the traffic on the NN was inbound and was carried by interchange cars from other roads, It was usual to see five gondolas of blister copper lead by the SD-7 and the RSD-4 heading out to Cobre and a train of 25-30 cars on the return trip with diesel fuel, mixed freight, and machinery parts. All these cars were from foreign roads and could be from just about any railroad in the US, the UP, SP, and WP predominating. It was a neat operation to railfan, much like the Trona in California. Alas, they are both gone in terms of independent operating railroads.

I hope I haven't given you more information than you really wanted to know but the NN is a great railroad to model so I'm glad to see someone else interested in it. :)
 
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