Virginia & Truckee Railroad Company – Virginia City, Nevada

Continuing our railroad theme, we hopped aboard the Virginia & Truckee Railroad’s diesel engine for a ride. We enjoyed a 40 minute tour through the high desert hillsides surrounding Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada. The weather was perfect so we sat in the open car.

Fun fact: a lot of the money used to build the city of San Francisco, CA came from gold mines in Virginia City, NV. At one time, this was a booming town of 30,000 people, today about 700 people live here. There are still active gold mines in this area.

Here are the photos from our excursion:

This train ride was, “So awesome!”, a direct quote from all 3 kiddos (in unison) when we arrived back at the depot. It was a really lovely ride, my favorite part was going through the tunnel. The docent told us lots about local history & was very funny and entertaining. He was a big fan of train jokes, here are some for you:

Q: Why can’t a steam locomotive sit down?

A: Because it has a tender behind.

Q: Why is the railroad angry?

A: Because people are always crossing it.

Q: How can you tell when a train is eating?

A: You can hear it Choo-choo.

You can click here for more Kid’s Train Jokes.

Here are some of our favorite books about trains:

Thanks for chugging along on this adventure with us!