The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was a former class II railroad that served eastern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and southwestern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. The railroad was built mainly to haul borax from

Francis Marion Smith Francis Marion Smith (February 2, 1846 – August 27, 1931) (once known nationally and internationally as "Borax Smith" and "The Borax King" ) was an American miner, business magnate and civic builder in the Mojave Desert, the San Francisc ...

Pacific Coast Borax Company The Pacific Coast Borax Company (PCB) was a United States mining company founded in 1890 by the American borax magnate Francis Smith, the "Borax King". History The roots of the Pacific Coast Borax Company lie in Mineral County, Nevada, east of ...

mines located just east of

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

, but it also hauled lead, clay, feldspar, passengers and general goods across the desert to a connection with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad at Ludlow, California, and to the

Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad The Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad was a rail company in California, Nevada, and Utah in the United States, that completed and operated a railway line between its namesake cities (Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California), via Las Ve ...

(later

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

) at Crucero, California. The railroad was originally intended to run from

Tonopah, Nevada Tonopah ( , Shoshoni language: Tonampaa) is an unincorporated town in, and the county seat of, Nye County, Nevada, United States. It is located at the junction of U.S. Routes 6 and 95, approximately midway between Las Vegas and Reno. In the 2 ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

(the "tidewater"), but never made it to either on its own rails. It was famous for being the last of the three railroads built to cross the Death Valley region, and outlasting them by over 30 years providing dedicated and reliable service to the desert residents. The T&T also formed part of a potential north-south transcontinental railroad route, connected together by four different US railway companies, later used as the basis to potentially form a Mid-Pacific Railroad.Myrick, David F. : Railroads of Nevada & Eastern California: Volume I, The Northern Roads, pg.86. The railroad operated from 1907 until 1940, when it suspended operations due to a lack of profitable traffic. The rails were taken up in 1943 for use in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and the company itself was officially abandoned by 1946.Serpico, Phil: THE TONOPAH & TIDEWATER R.R., The Nevada Short Line.

History

was one of California's most successful entrepreneurs and mining tycoons. In 1890, he had incorporated the

and operated the largest borax mine in the world at Borate, located north of

Daggett, California Daggett is an unincorporated community located in San Bernardino County, California in the United States. The town is located on Interstate 40 ten miles (16 km) east of Barstow. The town has a population of about 200. The ZIP code is 92 ...

, with the

Borate and Daggett Railroad The Borate and Daggett Railroad was a narrow gauge railroad built to carry borax in the Mojave Desert. The railroad ran about from Daggett, California, US, to the mining camp of Borate, to the east of Calico. History In 1883, prospectors disc ...

running a more than adequate service between the two stops. Smith was also responsible for building several interurban and rapid transport systems around

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

and

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. By 1901, Smith started searching some old borax claims located in the Black Mountains, just east of Death Valley, and located the Lila C. mine, about from the nearest railhead of

Ivanpah, California Ivanpah (Chemehuevi: "Clean Water") is in the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, California. There are several residences in the area, but no real village. Ivanpah is located on the bajada below the northeast side of the New Yo ...

on the Santa Fe. To bring the borax out from this remote region, he tried to use an old steam tractor to haul the ore, but it was not suited for the harsh desert conditions and was quickly taken out of service. Smith then considered the idea of building a railroad from the nearest point possible on the Santa Fe, to connect the Lila C. to the most intermediate route to his refineries at

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is primarily located on Alameda (island), Alam ...

and

Bayonne, New Jersey Bayonne ( ) is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is situated on a peninsula located between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill Van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east. As of ...

. He had also hoped of extending the railroad towards

, as during that time there was a great mining boom going on in the region, with gold and silver mines popping out from all over the area, and even as far south as Beatty, Nevada, Goldfield and

Rhyolite, Nevada Rhyolite is a ghost town in Nye County, in the U.S. state of Nevada. It is in the Bullfrog Hills, about northwest of Las Vegas, near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park. The town began in early 1905 as one of several mining camps ...

. On July 19, 1904, Francis Marion Smith had incorporated the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Company in New Jersey, with Smith as president, and his associates DeWitt Van Buskirk as vice-president, C.B. Zabriskie as secretary-treasurer, and John Ryan as superintendent and general manager. After considering building his railroad from several locations including Manvel, California (now Barnwell), and

, Francis Smith eventually ran into

William A. Clark William Andrews Clark Sr. (January 8, 1839March 2, 1925) was an American politician and entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads. Biography Clark was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He moved with his family to Iowa in 1 ...

, Montana senator and head of the

, at

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Clark proposed to Smith that the T&T could be built out of Las Vegas, as the quickest and most direct way to the borax mine and Tonopah goldfields. Smith reacted enthusiastically to Clark's proposal, and he agreed. However, Clark himself was considering building a railroad to Tonopah, and allowing a direct competitor to build right in his way put Clark in a very awkward position.Hildderbrand, George F.: Borax Pioneer: Francis Marion Smith.

Beginnings

In 1905, Francis Marion Smith immediately sent crews out to Las Vegas to begin construction of the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad. Grading was started on May 29, and by mid-July, about of roadbed was graded. William Clark had tried constantly to discourage Smith from building his railroad, from raising rates for construction materials to consolidating the Nevada Rapid Transist Company and building an auto road from Las Vegas to Beatty. The sharpest point in the barb poked in Smith's side, was when he was openly denied by LA&SL railroad officials to allow the T&T grade to connect to their main line. Smith tried to get in contact with Clark to figure out what was going on, but Clark had completely evaded Smith by hiding out in Paris. There, Clark had come up with the idea of building his own railroad to the Nevada goldfields, which would come to be known as the

Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was a railroad built by William A. Clark that ran northwest from a connection with the mainline of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas, Nevada to the gold mines at Goldfield. The SPL ...

. Despite Smith's disappointment, he held no resentment for Clark, and instead went to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad to propose they use their stop at Ludlow, California as the T&T's new terminus. This was the perfect get-back at Clark's double-cross, for Clark and the Santa Fe were in direct competition to one another. Plus, building north of Ludlow would bring about more business opportunities for the T&T to profit off of, as there were plenty of mines in the area where the Tonopah & Tidewater was planned to be built. The biggest drawback however, was that the railroad would be twice as long as it would've been if they built out of Las Vegas, about distance. Francis Smith sold all of his Las Vegas railroad work, graded roadbed, property and supplies to Clark, and moved immediately to Ludlow and started building the T&T with new construction material provided by the Santa Fe. Starting construction in November, it soon got too hot for the railroad workers during the summer months. Water was the hardest to provide, but plenty of meat was made available by the butchers located in Daggett. The T&T construction crews eventually reached Crucero, California by 1906, where they had to cross over the mainline of the

. An agreement was written by the T&T and the LA&SL to use Crucero as an interchange and crossover point between the two railroads, but it did not entirely suit either party. They eventually came to a mutual agreement, and the T&T construction crews pushed further north. The hardest part of building the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad was going through the Amargosa Canyon. It took several thousand head of mules and men to blast their way through the canyon, and took nearly three years to get to the other end where

Tecopa, California Tecopa (formerly Brownsville) is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Mojave Desert, in Inyo County, California, United States. Tecopa is located south-southeast of Shoshone, at an elevation of . The population was 150 at the 2010 census, u ...

now stands. The Tonopah and Tidewater reached

Death Valley Junction, California Death Valley Junction, more commonly known as Amargosa ( Spanish for "Bitter"), is a tiny Mojave Desert unincorporated community in Inyo County, California, at the intersection of SR 190 and SR 127, in the Amargosa Valley and just east of Deat ...

by 1907, the closest point to the Lila C. borax mine. Here, a branch line was built to the mine and trains immediately started transporting the borax to the Santa Fe. The last spike was hammered into place at Gold Center, Nevada with no celebration, as the

had already beat the T&T to Goldfield, and the financial panic of 1907 was severely crippling the operations of the gold mines. Nevertheless, the Tonopah and Tidewater was in a better position to be more profitable than the Las Vegas and Tonopah, and in 1908 merged with the

Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad The Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad (BGRR) was a railroad lying just inside and about midway of the southwestern State line of Nevada. It was incorporated in 1905 to provide an outlet from the mining section near Beatty, Nevada, Beatty to the north ov ...

to reach Goldfield, also connecting to Tonopah by way of the

Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad The Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad, a railroad of in length in the U.S. state of Nevada, offered point-to-point service between Mina and Goldfield, running over the Excelsior Mountains and parallel to the Monte Cristo Range. It operated from ...

. The T&T's rates were cut shorter than the LV&T, and passengers preferred the shorter route of the T&T over the LV&T as it was shorter than it took to get to Los Angeles by the former. By the time

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out, the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was in a bad state. The

United States Railroad Administration The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was the name of the nationalisation, nationalized railroad system of the United States between December 28, 1917, and March 1, 1920. It was the largest American experiment with nationalization, and ...

took over the T&T and the LV&T as with all the nation's railroads, but deemed the latter as an unnecessary route and had the LV&T taken up for scrap in 1918. The Lila C. mines eventually ran dry by 1913, and the T&T filed to extend their branchline to the new mines at

Ryan, California Ryan (formerly known as Devar ("Devair" as a misprint)) is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. A former mining community and company town, Ryan is situated at an elevation of in the Amargosa Range, northeast of Dante's Vi ...

(formerly Devar). However, with their mounting debt of over $4.4 million they were denied to do so by the ICC, and instead Pacific Coast Borax organized a new railroad, the 3 ft-gauge Death Valley Railroad, to haul the ore from Ryan to the T&T at Death Valley Junction.

Decline

By 1927,

had moved their mining operations to

Boron Boron is a chemical element with the symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the ''boron group'' it has th ...

, located away from Death Valley. The Tonopah and Tidewater had to resort to hauling lead from Tecopa, feldspar and clay from Bradford Siding, north of Death Valley Junction, along with gypsum, talc and general goods. Without the borax mine however, the T&T only showed profit for about 4 years before finances dropped sharply. The

was abandoned by 1928, severing the T&T's rail link with Goldfield and Tonopah, forcing the railroad to cut back its tracks to Beatty. The T&T tried to campaign tourism to Death Valley in an effort to stay alive. The railroad campaigned with the Union Pacific to have a Pullman sleeper service run from Los Angeles, interchange with the T&T at Crucero, and be hauled as far as Death Valley Junction, where guests could explore the valley and stay at exquisite hotels such as the Furnace Creek Inn and the Death Valley View Hotel at Ryan, by way of the Death Valley Railroad. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

severely crippled the tourist trade for the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, and people began to use automobiles to get to and from the valley. It was soon becoming evident that the T&T was losing too much money to keep itself afloat, maintenance costs skyrocketed due to the many floods that plagued the right-of-way in several places. By 1938, the ''"Tired and Tardy"'' as the railroad was known by then, was over $5 million in debt. Abandonment filings with the Interstate Commerce Commission were applied by the T&T as early as 1938. Many protests were made by the local businesses that relied on the T&T for their very existence, but the ICC eventually approved of the applications for abandonment by 1940. The railroad was laid in submission for a time in hopes of reopening to better traffic, but when the United States entered

in 1941, all of the T&T's rails and equipment were requisitioned by the War Department for use in Europe. It took nearly a year for Sharp and Fellows, Inc. to remove the entire railway between Ludlow and Beatty, leaving but the old trackbed behind, and a few ties in the lonely desert. Much of the salvageable wood from ties and bridges were used to build a few structures, most notably the

Apple Valley Inn The Apple Valley Inn was a hotel and restaurant established in Apple Valley, California, to help developer Newton T. Bass attract wealthy land buyers to the southern California desert town. Bass and partner Bernard "Bud" Westlund owned Apple Valle ...

located at Apple Valley and the El Rancho Motel in Barstow. A few buildings in

, along with the facilities for the hot springs, were also built from old T&T railroad ties. Many of them built by Harry Rosenberg Sr., who was the section gang foreman for the railroad from 1927 till abandonment in 1943. Other than that, only a boxcar #129, flatcar #205,Orange Empire Railway Museum Stocklist: Other Railroads
/ref> caboose #402,
/ref> coach chair car #30,
/ref> outfit diner car #506 (formerly coach #20),Jensen, Larry : Hollywood's Railroads Volume One: Virginia & Truckee. a handcarhandcar from the T&T, now on display at the Borax Museum in Furnace Creek
/ref> and a gas-driven railcar #99 still exist.TONOPAH & TIDEWATER #99 FOUND
/ref> Whatever else that remains of the once-great desert railroad is now scattered across many museums and private collections located in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

Museum

A Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Historical Society was formed in 2015 with the intent of preserving the history of the old desert railroad, and to build a HO Scale layout of it running between Ludlow, California and Death Valley Junction. The museum was formerly based in the

Amargosa Opera House and Hotel Amargosa Opera House and Hotel is a historic building and cultural center located in Death Valley Junction, in eastern Inyo County, California near Death Valley National Park. Resident artist Marta Becket staged dance and mime shows there from ...

located in

, but has since moved to

Goldfield, Nevada Goldfield is an unincorporated small desert city and the county seat of Esmeralda County, Nevada. It is the locus of the Goldfield CDP which had a resident population of 268 at the 2010 census, down from 440 in 2000. Goldfield is located ...

. The model railroad is currently not operating and a proper location to host it is being searched for.Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad Historical Society Inc.
/ref>Goldfield Historical Society
/ref>

Locomotives

The Tonopah and Tidewater had a maximum of 16 locomotives, 10 steam locomotives and one gas-driven railcar, and 6 steam engines added into the roster when it merged with the

in 1908.Myrick, David F. : Railroads of Nevada & Eastern California: Volume II, The Southern Roads, pg.905, pg. 886.Serpico, Phil: THE TONOPAH & TIDEWATER R.R., The Nevada Short Line, pg.280,281. *Sharp & Fellows #7, an

ALCO The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

- Dickson 2-6-2 steam locomotive, was brought over to the T&T by Sharp and Fellows, Inc. to aid with the taking up of rails between Beatty, Nevada and Ludlow, California in 1943. It has been preserved and is on display at the

Travel Town Museum Travel Town Museum is a railway museum dedicated on December 14, 1952, and located in the northwest corner of Los Angeles, California's Griffith Park. The history of railroad transportation in the western United States from 1880 to the 1930s is ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Locomotives inherited from the Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad

These locomotives became possession of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad in 1908, upon merging with the

. The BGRR was later sold to the

in 1914, then back to the T&T after abandonment of the LV&T in 1918. The BGRR was abandoned in 1928.

Rolling stock

Much of the T&T's rolling stock consisted of second-hand boxcars dating back to the 1880s and 1890s, most of them were acquired from the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad by way of railroad surplus dealer Fitzhugh-Luther Co. Freight on the line was hauled mostly in cars loaned from other railroads for faster transfer and shipment. The T&T had some 2-axle trucked Pullman passenger cars bought new, and a few old wood-bodied passenger cars with end balconies built back in the 1890s. Some were eventually converted to work outfit cars or combine cars. The T&T would often hook a passenger car on their trains to serve as a passenger-carrying vehicle for both northbound and southbound trains. Despite this, the T&T did also have a few cabooses which were used on occasion with some of their trains.Serpico, Phil: THE TONOPAH & TIDEWATER R.R., The Nevada Short Line, pg.282-285.

Route

Many stops along the railroad were named for associates of

Part of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad's route runs through the

Death Valley National Park Death Valley National Park is an American national park that straddles the California–Nevada border, east of the Sierra Nevada. The park boundaries include Death Valley, the northern section of Panamint Valley, the southern section of Eureka ...

, and certain sections of it have been made into hiking trails for tourists. Other parts of the route are easily accessible to offroaders, and much of the former railroad bed parallels

California State Route 127 State Route 127 (SR 127) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that connects Interstate 15 in Baker to Nevada State Route 373 at the Nevada state line, passing near the eastern boundary of Death Valley National Park. The entire lengt ...

between Baker and

. *

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...

(MP 0.0), (interchange with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, location of the T&T's headquarters and locomotive repair facilities) * Broadwell (MP 12.68) *

Mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

(MP 21.49) * Crucero, California (MP 25.68), (interchange with the

, later

.) *Rasor (MP 29.38), named for Clarence Rasor, Smith's employee. This area is privately owned within a remote public use area, the Rasor Off-Highway Vehicle Area. *

Soda Lake A soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality, typically with a pH value between 9 and 12. They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate (and related salt complex ...

(MP 33.34), later renamed Zzyzx * Baker (MP 41.82), formerly Berry, renamed for

Richard C. Baker Richard C. Baker (1858 – 1937) was the British business partner of Francis Marion "Borax" Smith and eventually became president of the Pacific Coast Borax Company and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. In 1899, "Borax" Smith, founder of Pacific ...

, Smith's business associate *

Silver Lake Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

(MP 49.50) *Talc (MP 56) *Riggs (MP 59.47), formerly named Alta. *Lore (MP 60) *

Valjean Valjean Johns (November 19, 1934February 10, 2003), who typically recorded under his first name only, was an American pianist best known for his recording of the theme song from the TV show ''Ben Casey''. Born in Shattuck, Oklahoma, Valjean studi ...

(MP 65.11) * Dumont (MP 74.40), named after Harry Dumont who ran the company's San Francisco office. * Sperry (MP 78.84), named after Smith's niece Charlotte Grace Sperry *Acme (MP 82.97), formerly named Morrison. *

Tecopa Tecopa (formerly Brownsville) is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Mojave Desert, in Inyo County, California, United States. Tecopa is located south-southeast of Shoshone, at an elevation of . The population was 150 at the 2010 census, u ...

(MP 87.67), junction point with the Tecopa Railroad. *Zabriskie (MP 91.74), named for Christian Brevoort Zabriskie, superintendent at

Columbus Marsh Columbus Marsh is a playa in Nevada, United States. William Troup (or Troop) discovered cottonball borax at the site in 1870 or 1871. Joseph Mosheimer and Emile K. Stevenot, who operated one of the borax concentrating plants at Columbus, hired Fr ...

later in charge of New York operations. * Shoshone (MP 96.95) *Fitrol Spur (MP 97-98) * Gerstley (MP 101.26), named for James Gerstley, Smith's business partner and later U.S. Borax President from 1950-1961. *Jay (MP 106.00) * Death Valley Junction (MP 122.01), junction for the Lila C. Branch (1907-1915) and interchange with the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

Death Valley Railroad *Bradford Siding (MP 128.01), spur line went to clay pits from here. *Muck (MP 131) *Jenifer (MP 139.44), named for Frank Morgan Jenifer, president of the railroad. * Leeland (MP 144.51) *Ashton (MP 154.98) *

Carrara Carrara ( , ; , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, west-northwest o ...

(MP 160.55), junction point with a cable tramway that went to a stone quarry, built by the

. *Post (MP 166), later renamed Weslead. * Gold Center (MP 166.0), connection made here with the

heading up north to Beatty. *Beatty Junction (MP 169.07), junction point with the

. * Beatty (MP 169.07), end track for the T&T and its facilities were joint owned with the

and the

. The following stops below are listed from the

as part of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad's route between Beatty and Bonnie Claire, Nevada. In operation from 1908 until 1927. Also includes part of the

, when it and the Bullfrog Goldfield merged in 1914, and had to cut off half of their routes and join together as there was not enough traffic to keep both routes going at the same time. Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad 1908 northern section

Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad 1908 northern section

Bullfrog ''Bullfrog'' is a common English language term to refer to large, aggressive frogs, regardless of species. Examples of bullfrogs include: Frog species America * Helmeted water toad (''Calyptocephalella gayi''), endemic to Chile *American bullfr ...

(MP 170.18) *

Rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

(MP 171.58), the T&T reached here by way of the

by way of a branchline out of Beatty, Nevada. *Wiggers (MP 172.49) *Rider or Ryders (MP 173) *Hot Springs (MP 174.49) *Silica (MP 178) * Springdale (MP 179.39) *Tolicha (MP 186) *Ancram (MP 188.59) *Jacksonville (MP 193.19) *Merger Mine (MP 194) * Bonnie Claire (Thorp/Thorp's Wells) (MP 206.59), here the line deviated over the

route after the reroute made to the tracks in 1914. All railroad points below are ex-LV&T stops used by the T&T and the BG after 1914. *Wagner (MP 218.59) *Stonewall (MP 227.17) *Cuprite (MP 227.99) *Silica (MP 229) *Ralston (MP 231.47) *Stella (MP 233.69) *Keith (MP 240.19) *Milltown (MP 241.19) *Bullfrog Junction (MP 241.59), junction point for the

and the

. * Goldfield (MP 242.69), originally a station of the

, also joint operated with the

. The T&T had an agency here until 1914 when it was rerouted over the LV&T tracks to their station and yard in Goldfield.

In popular culture

* A song about the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, with the same name as the railroad itself, was written by late songwriter Ken Graydon. It has also been sung by music artists, Walt Richards and Paula Strong for their "Trails & Rails" album. It is currently available for listening on YouTube."The Tonopah & Tidewater", Song by Walt Richards and Paula Strong, originally written by Ken Graydon
/ref> * The Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad has also made a few appearances in film, in the 1909 documentary ''"Trip to Death Valley,"''

Wallace Beery Wallace Fitzgerald Beery (April 1, 1885 – April 15, 1949) was an American film and stage actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Bill in ''Min and Bill'' (1930) opposite Marie Dressler, as General Director Preysing in ''Grand Hotel'' (193 ...

's '' 20 Mule Team'' Movie in 1940, and made a cameo appearance in an episode of ''

The Rifleman ''The Rifleman'' is an American Western television program starring Chuck Connors as rancher Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show ...

'', "Grasshopper."Death Valley Filmography
/ref> An episode of

Death Valley Days ''Death Valley Days'' is an American old-time radio and television anthology series featuring true accounts of the American Old West, particularly the Death Valley country of southeastern California. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program ...

, ''"The Rose of Rhyolite"'',Rose of Rhyolite’’
/ref> was based on a real incident that happened on the railroad, though the T&T itself was not used in the episode, having been taken up long before filming began. * For the avid

HO scale HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO.NMRA"M ...

railroad modeler, ''Central Valley Model Works'' and ''MDC-Roundhouse'' offered some boxcar kits to model ones like those that ran on the T&T. Roundhouse has also made some Pullman Palace cars with the option to letter them "Tonopah & Tidewater," along with the other railroads the decals come with from the factory. The Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette have published several diagrams of T&T locomotives, Nos. 4 through 10 and railcar #99, for anyone who would want to kitbash a model of them.

References

* * McCulloch, John A.
Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad historical information
* * * * Serpico, Phil, TONOPAH & TIDEWATER RR - The Nevada Short Line, , Omni Publication

* Serpico, Phil, THE LAS VEGAS & TONOPAH RAILROAD, , Omni Publication

* Nelson, Genne, A Brief History of the Furnace Creek Area (1849–1954), Chapter Q in Michael N. Machette, Margo L. Johnson, and Janet L. Slate (eds.)
''Quaternary and Late Pliocene Geology of the Death Valley Region: Recent Observations on Tectonics, Stratigraphy, and Lake Cycles (Guidebook for the 2001 Pacific Cell--Friends of the Pleistocene Fieldtrip)''
(USGS, 2001) * * * Walker, Mike, SPV's Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America - California/Nevada Post Merger Edition, (Steam Powered Publishing & SPV, 1997) Ownership and detail of rail lines. *

External links

TTRR.org: Covers the history of the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad, and its environs

"Railroads of Death Valley" Facebook group - we talk all about T&T and all related lines!

Another great group on Yahoo! that talks about the T&T!

Abandonedrails.com: ca. 1907 Tonopah and Tidewater RR map
(~6.5MB)
Abandonedrails.com: "The abandoned Tonopah and Tidewater RR"
— ''article, includes pictures and map.''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonopah Tidewater Railroad Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, Defunct California railroads Defunct Nevada railroads Rail transportation in California Rail transportation in Nevada History of the Mojave Desert region History of Inyo County, California History of Nye County, Nevada History of San Bernardino County, California Amargosa Desert Tonopah, Nevada Railway companies established in 1906 Railway companies disestablished in 1940 1906 establishments in California 1940 disestablishments in California 1906 establishments in Nevada 1940 disestablishments in Nevada Companies based in San Bernardino County, California Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles