(The following article by Beryl Chong was posted on the Reno Gazette-Journal website on April 14.)
RENO, Nevada — Robert Thomas is going to miss seeing the trains when they go “underground” after the downtown Reno trench is completed.
So he greeted the Chicago-bound California Zephyr on Tuesday as it rode for the first time on the shoofly, 2.2 miles of temporary rails necessary until the $282 million trench project is finished in September 2005.
The new track stretches from Keystone Avenue along Fitzgeralds Casino-Hotel, the Golden Phoenix Hotel Casino and Harrah’s Reno on Commercial Row.
The shoofly will remain in operation until a 33-foot deep trench is built. Fourteen trains use the track daily.
“It’s a draw for the city, always has been,” said the 85-year-old Reno resident of the passenger train.
Don Meehan, of Napa, Calif., recorded the historic event with two cameras.
“This is Reno history, I was very happy and honored to do that,” Meehan said.
He drove Monday evening to Sparks to spend some time with granddaughters, Amanda and Kim Jarding, ages 16 and 15, who were on spring break when he found out about the shoofly.
“I couldn’t believe the timing,” he said.
The Zephyr reached the new tracks at 4:12 p.m., stopping at the new Amtrak station formed with two mobile homes across from The Freight House.
Zephyr passengers Don Zupan, 73, and his wife, Pat, 72, walked to the Silver Legacy where they’re staying for one night.
“Feels good to be walking,” said 73-year-old Don Zupan of Pittsburg,cq Calif.
The temporary station is about a block east of the old Amtrak station but Glenn and Karen Leone, who boarded the Zephyr at 10:14 a.m. in Martinez, Calif., trekked to the El Dorado Hotel and Casino to check in.
“I couldn’t tell any difference,” said Glenn Leone of Guerneville, Calif. “You can walk to everything.”
With the sun greeting them as they stepped off the train, they were just happy that there were no delays.
The couple had embarked on their trip at 10:14 Tuesday morning from Martinez, Calif.
“We came for the train ride but we also came to gamble,” said Karen Leone.
When trains are coming from the east and the west, one will wait at the edge of town until the shoofly is clear.
Joyce Rosenberg and Kathleen Johnson have been volunteer narrators for the California State Railroad Museum for three years. They board the Zephyr in Sacramento and ride to Reno two to three times a year.
“We feel badly for the traffic to be stopped when lots of people get on and off and they just have to wait for the train to move,” Johnson said of the 20-30-minute delay while passengers board and leave trains at the temporary station.
“It will be so nice for Reno to have the tracks below so that traffic can go over the top and keep moving,” Rosenberg said.