Re: Tonopah/NCO Buffet-Sleepers

Dan,

This is one of the questions that I'm trying to answer.

When the first of these Pullmans showed up one of the newspapers thought there would be through service between Mound House and Tonopah. I'm not sure if this service occurred. I'm going to have to look at contemporary schedules (in newspapers or elsewhere) and see if the trains were running overnight. The sleepers may only have been used on the Tonopah RR.

Quote
From my roster notes of the N-C-O passenger cars
WAVERLY
ALTURAS 10sec-buffet
purchased 1911 from Tonopah & Goldfield
Renamed from WAVERLY to ALTURAS in March 1915
Set on ground at Willows Ranch (date unknown)
Car removed from list of equipment between 12/31/16 and 12/31/17

MADELINE 10sec-buffet
purchased 1911 from Tonopah & Goldfield
retired “no sale value” November 1928
set-up as sleeping quarters at Wendel

Notes on the 10 section-buffet cars:
These two cars appear to have been built in 1883 by Pullman Palace Car Company as cars CIMMARRON and OGDEN (later DOLORES) sold 7/04 to H. Schlacks (dealer).

Then sold to Tonopah Railroad arriving September, car MIZPAH, and November 1904, car SILVER TOP. After standard gauging of the road the Tonopah & Goldfield reported that it had two narrow-gauge sleeping cars on standard gauge trucks.

Mizpah and Silver Top were names of mines at Tonopah.

On the N-C-O there were several schemes of operations -- none of which satisfied both the up-line passengers and the Reno merchants. I think the run was a long 16-18 hour trip.

If it is a daytime operation the section seats could have been sold for day occupancy. This would have been a service similar to parlor cars but with seats in sections instead of individual swivel seats.

Brian Norden