Comstock Dawn - Twilight at Overman Pit. A Virginia & Truckee Freight makes its way across the high fill at the eastern edge of the Overman Pit Mine (MP 49.4), at Civil Twilight on a cold February morning.
The Overman Pit Mine, which had been excavated since the original Virginia City Branch line was lifted in 1941, represented the single biggest obstacle to the line's reconstruction. Essentially, the commission tasked with reconstructing the line, needed to bridge the entire eastern side of the pit, by constructing a 140 foot high fill. Approximately 310,000 cubic feet of rocks and dirt had to be moved, creating a fill that was 200 feet long and 20 feet wide. Completed in 2005, the high fill enabled track construction to press on to the south of Gold Hill, through American Flat and all the way to Mound House, just outside Carson City, where it ends today. Although it is a bit of an engineering marvel, the likes of which are seldom seen in preservation railroading today, it is also requires continuing maintenance, as one can imagine that 310,000 cubic feet of fill has a tendency to settle a shift a bit with time. Fortunately, the folks responsible for the reconstruction keep a close eye on it.
Landscape photography is difficult due to the challenge of combining good light and good scenery. Good railroad photography enters another level of complexity since it requires the first two while there is a train in view.
A continuously growing album of photos that IMHO reveal the awesome and seldom-seen beauty of the railroad world from the dimming of day to dawn's early light! From dusk to dawn, trains roll on! (I'm still finding gems of sunset-to-sunrise surprises!)
