Baldwin sisters....30 years apart. Of the 9 surviving locomotives from the original Virginia & Truckee Railway, only two are still operable and both are seen here, side-by-side on the wye in the woods at the north end of the museum complex. To museum personnel, this location is sometimes referred to as "The Hole.". V&T #22 "Inyo", a 4-4-0 American built in 1875 burns wood and represents early V&T power. V&T #25, a high-stepping, 4-6-0, burns oil and represents the last series of engines purchased by the line in the early 1900s.
This photo is an interesting study, because both engines are Baldwin products, and both built in Philadelphia, PA for the same railroad.....30 years apart. Thirty years may not seem like much, but in an era when technology was advancing by leaps and bounds, you can see the major differences between the two, even at this distance. By 1905, when the 25 was delivered, a few 4-4-0s were still being built, but darn few. By that time, wheel configurations such as 4-4-2, 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 were much more popular, as engines became larger and more powerful. Link and pin couplers were replaced by Janney-type knuckle couplers and all locomotives featured automatic air. Few engines built after 1900 used wood for fuel or featured big, balloon stacks like you see on Inyo. Also gone were the ornate, brass features that gave engines like Inyo nick-names such as "Brass Betsy." Although the 1905-vintage 25 does still have a few decorations left on her, even those would shortly disappear on new production engines just a year or two later. The last two ten-wheelers delivered to the V&T (the 26 and 27, built in 1907 and 1913 respectively) were plain-looking, work-a-day engines.
