Ely's Engine House Queen. Parked in the far back of the East Ely Engine House, sits the one piece of Nevada Northern's historic equipment that has not moved an inch since I started visiting the museum back in 2008. You are looking at Baldwin Consolidation #81. This locomotive was built for the Nevada Northern back in 1917. She's a superheated, coal-fired, heavy freight locomotive that served the railroad until she last ran in 1960. Although she was built as a hand-bomber like NN's other engines, this gal received a stoker in 1939, and was probably pretty popular with crews on the long runs north to Cobre. She has never been restored or run since the establishment of the Nevada Northern Railway Museum and until recently, has been a low priority. Even moving her cold is a problem, for as you can see, her running gear is a missing a few parts. During the 2014 Winter Photo Shoots, Museum Director Mark Bassett indicated that this engine has moved onto the short-list of museum projects and restoration is indeed a possibility. The feasibility and time frame will all depend upon what the museum crews find when they start a detailed survey of her boiler and running gear. As with any similar project, the probability of success will be directly proportional to the volume of cubic dollars that the museum is able to raise.
