The three SP-Owens Valley Narrow Gauge Engines (#8, #9, #18) were all ex-NCO as stated. A few years ago the #18 was being restored to operational status and they got it up to maybe enough pressure to blow the whistle. I had heard that Myron Alexander was leading this project (an important player in the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad move). Myron passed a few years ago, maybe 2001, and I am not sure on the status of the project. The #8 is on display in Sparks, and the #9 of course in Laws. It failed its last boiler test in the 1950s. I heard that a few NCO structures exist in Reno (but I've never seen them). In addition, another ex-NCO engine (a 2-8-0) was sold to the Nevada County Narrow Gauge and it was used as US Navy L-17 at Pearl Harbor (as an 0-8-0). At NCNG it wore the number 9. A lot of people have been searching as though presumed scrapped, there is a chance it may still be around. One rumor said China, another the Phillipines. The Phillipines rumor is the most logical at the moment. Plus there have been rumors of people sighting an engine with the NCNG herald coming through the paint. Several American locomotives went to the Phillipines, including shays, mallets, etc. The Kauai Kilohana project by Brook Rother apparently has tracked down some engines there (Hawaiian-Phillipine?) as well as a Louisiana plantation engine which I am curious as if it is the Godchaux Porter that he owns that was at the Old Vegas park (as was the "Eureka") in Henderson, Nevada. I'm not sure what the casino cars mentioned were, but there were some 3' gauge cars behind the Shay at the casino in Boulder City with very old trucks. The whole lot and the 0-4-0T there were sold with the Shay to the West Side restoration group.
I also have somewhere a story about a kitchen car on the Nevada-California-Oregon that was haunted by a slain chef, a good halloween tale. Add that to the list of D&RG #107, etc...
With the restoration of the Death Valley brill car at Laws and plans for a track (Independence, CA; owners of #18 also planned something), perhaps there is a future for the old SP Narrow Gauge again...which started over 110 years ago as the Carson & Colorado. I've never been out to Laws but it doesn't look like there is much there...a steam railroad there could bring in tourists.
Keep Steaming,
Ed Kelley
