“Mexican Central” Railway
The “Mexican Central” railway as the caption says. It ran behind Austin Hall down along California Street, then out across Searles Lake. Mexican workers rode out on the train and loaded the hopper cars with salt by hand. Then the train returned and the salt was unloaded. For a while the train hauled materials to and from the Gold Bottom mine on the east side of Searles Valley. It never ran within the plant itself.
Pete Canning
The locomotive in the picture is a Plymouth model CL, DL, or FL… The model CL was introduced in 1921, but company records don’t show any being built for any of the Searles Lake companies…. The closest is one built for Alpine Gypsum at Gypsite, 57 miles south. It too was 24″ gauge, and due to lease issues Alpine Gypsum (also known as Alpine Plaster) was likely out of business by 1925… If we believe the stories, there would have been an earlier gasoline locomotive on this line. This would have been very early for gasoline locomotives, and several of the likely builders are not well documented.
Other photos of the “Mexican Central) show an earlier Plymouth Model BL, with more primitive sheet metal and an awning over the entire locomotive… West End Consolidated purchased 2 Plymouth BL locomotives in Dec 1918… so are more likely from West End.
Finally the small steam locomotive at Knotts is from a third 24” gauge railroad, the Burnham Chemical Company
Randy Hees, Director, Nevada State Railroad Museum, Boulder City NV
This was the “Mexican Central” railway as the caption says. It ran behind Austin Hall down along California Street, then out across Searles Lake. Mexican workers rode out on the train and loaded the hopper cars with salt by hand. Then the train returned and the salt was unloaded. For awhile the train hauled materials to and from the Gold Bottom mine on the east side of Searles Valley. It never ran within the plant itself.
I suspect but have never found proof that this train was later moved to the Westend Plant and was called the Plimoth Railway. There it was used to haul materials around the plant and waste lime to behind the westend pool area.