Nevada’s nuclear history is no secret … or maybe it is. Filled with myths and mysteries they have revealed themselves as truths or legends in the years since visitors and residents alike gathered outside a budding Las Vegas to watch mushroom clouds erupt over the Nevada desert.
The historic 80-ton GE locomotive is moved from the Nevada Test Site to the Nevada State Museum, Boulder City. However, the Nevada Test Site, which remains strictly off limits, sometimes reveals some of its hidden treasures. A few years ago, the National Nuclear Security Administration recognized the historical value of very special locomotive and decided to donate it to the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City. Because of its connection with one of the more fascinating pages in the state’s history, the locomotive used at the Nevada Test Site made a very valuable addition to the museum’s collection of rolling stock.
In 2006 the railroad museum moved by truck the historic GE 80-Ton locomotive from the Nevada Test Site through Las Vegas to the Railroad Museum in Boulder City. Named the Jackass and Western, this GE diesel-electric locomotive is now on display, and visitors can catch a rare glimpse of Nevada’s nuclear past.
I’ve seen the locomotive many times and I know at least part of its story. Manufactured by the General Electric Locomotive Works, Erie, Pennsylvania in September 1964 for the Atomic Energy Commission it came to Nevada to begin its career on the Test Site. There it hauled nuclear rockets in an operation known as Project Rover.
I can imagine the 160,000 pound behemoth lumbering into the Nevada desert at a top speed of 40 miles-per-hour to leave its precious cargo, nuclear powered rockets, and lumbering off to await their detonation.
I encourage visitors to make it out to the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Boulder City as it’s not often a living piece of Nevada’s nuclear history is yours for the viewing. What’s even cooler is if you have an extra $250 to spare the museum will let you be an engineer for an hour and drive the famous train.
If you’re there on a weekend, be sure to catch a ride on the excursion train that runs the Boulder Branch Line which helped build the Hoover Dam. With train fares at a mere $8 for adults, $7 for seniors and $4 for kids, it’s an affordable escape.
The museum is located at 600 Yucca Street in Boulder City. Give them a call at 702-486-5933.
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