I just got back from Ely. I didn't have a chace to get to the museum, so I didn't get to ask anyone in the know. I did get as far north as McGill and saw no signs of any trackwork whatsoever. The low line (main to north) is paved over at US 93 and there is a hopper parked on the north end of the crossing with a ad for the Ghost Train painted on it's side like a billboard. That's about all I can tell you.
GLG-Ken wrote:The plans that I heard was for rebuilding the tracks(for the new coal-fired power plant) and trying to win the ore hauling traffic away from the trucks onto the rails. This would also entail rebuilbing the trackage thru Ely to the robinson mine to be able to handle the tonnage.
I believe there will be 2 power plants if they both get built. One will be on the west side of the Steptoe Valley close to Cherry Creek. I'm not sure where the other will be. The track will be re-built from Cobre (exSP conn) to Cherry Creek, and a new spur will be built to the plant(s). If that happens then the last 40 or so miles to Ely will be rebuilt also for the mine bussiness. The museum owns the track so I am sure they will get the rights to run excoursions on the newly rebuilt sections.
They will have lots of work to do to be able to run unit trains, this is what the track looked like at Currie back in October:
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