California Log Hog. The new Virginia & Truckee Railway's afternoon dead-head from Mound House to Virginia City charges off the fill around the Overman pit, on a late summer afternoon. The former McCloud River Railroad Mikado #18, which is the primary power for the new line, spent nearly a century as a logging engine in the Golden State before coming here. When the last of the McCloud operations wound down in the mid-2000s, this 1914 Baldwin product went on the market and was acquired by the Nevada State Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia & Truckee. It would be a few years before its new home was ready, and during that time, the engine made a few appearances on other tourist lines, notably the Sierra Railway in California. Once the V&T Virgina City Line had been rebuilt from Gold Hill to Mound House, near Carson City, the engine was finally brought to Nevada and was placed in service in mid-2010. Since that time, she's been running round trips from Mound House to Virginia City, every Saturday and Sunday from the end of May through the end of October. Still carrying her McCloud livery, it is unclear when or if she'll be numbered or lettered for the V&T. Although most of the equipment on the new V&T is owned by the Gray Family, and is lettered for the line, this locomotive is owned by the State Commission, and a change of that nature would have to be made by the commissioners.
