Nevada Northern Railway 2-8-0 81 is returning to service after spending more than two and a half years in the shop. On February 3, the engine was fired up, and the following day it successfully ran in the East Ely yard. In the days that followed, the Nevada Northern’s crews worked to reassemble the locomotive, including reinstalling the headlight and pilot, before finally returning it to regular service. 

Locomotive 81 was built by Baldwin in 1917 and hauled iron ore on the NNRy until 1958. After being on display in town for decades, it was moved back to the rail yard in the 1990s, where it sat in the back shop, often overshadowed by the railroad’s two other steam engines, Baldwin 4-6-0 40 and Alco 2-8-0 93. 

In the late 2010s, the railroad began to work on locomotive 81. The plan was to have the engine in service before 4-6-0 40 received a major overhaul, including much-needed running gear work. Not only would 81 provide the railroad with another operating steam engine, but it would also give it a locomotive much better suited to current operations: the 2-8-0 is more powerful than 40 but slightly more efficient than the larger 93. In 2021, 81 was fired up and run for the first time in 63 years. The engine would be NNRy’s primary motive power for the 2022 and part of the 2023 season, but then issues emerged with the pilot truck. As the shop crew began addressing the pilot truck, additional issues arose. Over the next few years, crews replaced the boiler knuckle, boiler rivets, installed new safety valves and more. 

With locomotive 81 back in service, NNRy plans to refocus its efforts on returning 40 and 93 to the main line, with the goal of eventually having all three engines under steam simultaneously. 

—Justin Franz