Nevada Northern Railway

National Historic Landmark; A Working Railroad Museum In The Original East Ely Yards · East Ely, Nevada

The Nevada Northern Railway is a working railroad museum in East Ely, a small mining town on US 50 in eastern Nevada. The railroad was built in the early 1900s to carry copper ore from the mines around Ruth and the smelter at McGill to the main line in the north, and it ran for decades for the copper companies, latterly Kennecott. When the mining shut down in the 1980s the yards, shops, depot and rolling stock were left almost as the workers had walked away from them, and they were handed over for preservation. Today the complex is a National Historic Landmark, often described as one of the best-preserved standard-gauge railroad yards in the country, and it is run as a working railroad rather than a static museum. Visitors ride steam and diesel excursion trains through the Steptoe Valley and toward the old copper pits, tour the engine house and machine shop, and can even pay to drive a locomotive. Ely is remote, high and cold at night, and makes a good base for Great Basin National Park.

1100 Avenue A, East Ely, Nevada, 89315, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the depot, ticket office and gift shop open daytime hours through the main season, roughly spring to autumn, often closing on some weekdays, with reduced hours in winter. Excursion trains run on scheduled days, usually with one or two departures, and more frequently in summer and on holiday weekends; the Polar Express and other specials run on set dates in winter. The traps that ruin a day are driving to Ely on a non-operating day, arriving to a sold-out special train, expecting steam when a diesel is scheduled, and planning a winter trip without checking road conditions on US 50 and US 93. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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