Riding the Bear Train
Oct. 22nd, 2017 05:34 pmWe have spent nearly every day for the past few weeks, particularly on weekends, working on a set of home-improvement projects that effectively can only be done in the spring and autumn when it's neither too hot nor too cold nor too dark to get them done. But today, we stopped around Noon and went for a Sunday drive.
First we headed over to USA Parkway, which has now been extended south to Silver Springs. We wanted to see what the new road was like. One thing it was like was lots of wild horses. We must have seen close to 75 in various herds there and in other places today.
We then continued to Carson City and checked the new (and final) extension of Nevada I-580 to complete the Carson City Bypass, before turning back north to go to the Nevada State Railroad Museum. We are museum members but haven't been here this season as I recall. They were very busy with their Harvest trains. We poked around the museum and acted as informal docents for some people who had been wondering about parts of the trains on display, as we explained about the Merci Train car and how trains are coupled and braked. Usefully, within a few steps of each other were:
The museum had one of their steam trains running today, and even though we could have ridden at half price with our memberships, we decided to skip it. However,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
travelswithkuma wanted to ride a train, so we found one that was more his size.
( Train Time for Kuma Bear )
We initially thought we might get some other errands or shopping done after our museum trip, but all of the stuff we've been doing to get the work done on the property before the winter arrives has taken a lot out of us, so we just drove straight home. But I'm glad we got out of the house for this. We like our house, really we do, but sometimes we need a break.
First we headed over to USA Parkway, which has now been extended south to Silver Springs. We wanted to see what the new road was like. One thing it was like was lots of wild horses. We must have seen close to 75 in various herds there and in other places today.
We then continued to Carson City and checked the new (and final) extension of Nevada I-580 to complete the Carson City Bypass, before turning back north to go to the Nevada State Railroad Museum. We are museum members but haven't been here this season as I recall. They were very busy with their Harvest trains. We poked around the museum and acted as informal docents for some people who had been wondering about parts of the trains on display, as we explained about the Merci Train car and how trains are coupled and braked. Usefully, within a few steps of each other were:
- the Merci Train car (European buffer couplers)
- Modern US Janney "buckeye" couplers
- Old link-and-pin couplers
- The very rare Miller platform coupler, of which only a few examples are known to exist, one of which is at the NSRRM
The museum had one of their steam trains running today, and even though we could have ridden at half price with our memberships, we decided to skip it. However,
travelswithkuma wanted to ride a train, so we found one that was more his size.( Train Time for Kuma Bear )
We initially thought we might get some other errands or shopping done after our museum trip, but all of the stuff we've been doing to get the work done on the property before the winter arrives has taken a lot out of us, so we just drove straight home. But I'm glad we got out of the house for this. We like our house, really we do, but sometimes we need a break.
