Sisters shine in the afternoon sun. Virginia & Truckee stablemates #22 "Inyo" (left) and #18 "Dayton" (right) pose in the afternoon light, adjacent to the turntable at the Nevada State Railroad Museum. Although the two are both classic examples of wood-burning, 4-4-0 "American Standard" Locomotives, there are some minor differences visible, which give away the fact that the two came from manufacturers located on opposite coasts. Inyo came from the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philly, back in 1875, and Dayton was built in the Central Pacific Shops in Sacramento, two years earlier, in 1873. The two differ in such details as the designs of the stacks, headlamps, domes, bell frames and number plates. Note also that Dayton sports a tool box on the pilot. The two engines also have very different paint jobs that are unrelated to the manufacturer, with the Dayton sporting the early "V&T RR" livery on the tender, while Inyo's somewhat newer tender lettering spells out "Virginia & Truckee". In doing their restorations, the NSRM has attempted to restore the engines to represent different time periods. If the museum ever gets a crack at restoring V&T #11 "Reno", I rather suspect she'll be restored to represent an even later time, when the 4-4-0s were converted to burn oil, and sported straight stacks with caps. Let's all hope that Reno's current owners will eventually let her come home to Nevada.
