Railroad picture in the area generally went like this:

- The Tonopah Railroad built from a connection with the C&C at Tonopah Junction- several miles south of Mina- to Tonopah. Construction started in 1903, with Tonopah reached in 1904. Several of the principles behind the railroad formed the Goldfield Railroad, which built the line from Tonopah to Goldfield in 1904 and 1905. The backers merged the two railroads to form the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad in 1905.

- The Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad came into existence in 1905 and built its line from Goldfield south through Rhyolite to Beatty between 1906 and 1907

- Las Vegas & Tonopah extended north from Las Vegas through Beatty and Rhyolite to Goldfield. Construction started in 1905, with the railroad completed to Rhyolite in December 1906 and Goldfield by the end of 1907.

- The Tonopah & Tidewater built its line, running from Ludlow, California, north to Gold Center, Nevada (just south of Beatty), between 1905 and 1907.

Unfortunately for all these railroads, the big mining booms that built Tonopah, Goldfield, and Rhyolite, along with a lot of other communities, ended in 1907. The T&T was in the best position, as it was part of the Pacific Coast Borax Company empire and existed to haul borax mined in the area by its parent organization.

The bad economic situation forced some consolidations; in 1908, the Tonopah & Tidewater assumed operations of the Bullfrog-Goldfield Railroad. This combination lasted until 1914, when control of the Bullfrog-Goldfield transferred to the Las Vegas & Tonopah, which allowed the two railroads to eliminate their duplicate Beatty-Rhyolite-Goldfield trackage by keeping the best parts of both roads and abandoning the duplicate trackage.

World War I in a way did force the Las Vegas & Tonopah to quit, but indirectly. The mining region did not produce anywhere near enough revenue to support three railroads, and when the United States Railroad Administration took control of all U.S. railroads during the war, they deemed LV&T a wastefull and unnecessary duplication and tossed it out of the roads operated by USRA. This did several things- for example, the LV&T could no longer utilize the LA&SL shops or other facilities to maintain its equipment. LV&T also lost the ability to compete for almost all freight and passenger traffic. With no revenues coming in and no shop or other facilities existing to maintain its equipment, the LV&T had no other real option but to abandon and salvage its line, which occurred in 1918. The Bullfrog-Goldfield reverted back into a new alliance with the Tonopah & Tidewater, which lasted until the B-G's owners finally threw in the towel and scrapped the line out in 1928. The Tonopah & Tidewater gave up the ghost and quit in June 1940. World War Two and the Army Air Force base at Tonopah prolonged the life of the Tonopah & Goldfield, which continued operations until 1947.

There was one more part to the story, as SP did build a branchline of its own, extending from Mohave to a connection with the C&C at Owenyo. This line was known variably as the Lone Pine or Jawbone branch. SP built the line between 1908 and 1910. This line ran parallel to, but substantially west of, the LV&T and T&T.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV