Steamscape: Crown Point. A V&T freight comes off the Crown Point Fill and is just now passing the ore loading facilities at about MP 50.0. This is one of the flatter stretches of the reconstructed line, but the respite from the steep climb out of Carson City will not last long. Perhaps 100 yards ahead of the train and out of sight to the right is the Gold Hill Freight Depot. Passing that building, the grade steepens markedly and the locomotive will work hard over the next mile or so, until it reaches the outskirts of Virginia City, which is the end of the line.
This elevated view provides a different perspective on the Crown Point Fill, which is the flat area just behind the train. Prior to 1936, that area was a deep ravine (called Crown Point Ravine) that was bridged by a tall wooden railroad trestle. The ravine was filled in just before the original Virginia City line was lifted in 1941. The canyon walls rising steeply above the fill give you just a taste of what that deep ravine might have looked like before all of that yellow fill was put there. Filling that in must have been quite a project. The wooden tower and chute rising just above the train is an old ore loading facility which was associated with one of the now abandoned mines which existed here at Crown Point.
