Multimedia Related to the Railroad

The CP dug a vertical shaft into the granite of Donner Summit so that its crews could dig the tunnel outward from the center as well as from both exterior ends. Waiting for the Cars has seven 3D views of this tunnel under construction. Click on the image, and then drag in the pop-up to explore the abandoned Summit Tunnel today, starting from the exterior entrance to its vertical shaft.
Alfred Hart made a stereo view of this scene near the Donner Summit tunnel in 1865 or 1866. We photographed the same scene, also in stereo, in 2007. A morphing video allow you to watch Hart’s 3D image change into that of the present day. Click to load the 10-second video. 3D glasses required.
UPRR Photographer J.B. Silvis made a triptych panorama (here stitched together) of the short-lived “hell on wheels” town of Promontory in 1869. Click on the image, and then drag in the pop-up to see the entire panorama. (Photographs courtesy the Swackhamer Collection.)
The V&T locomotive Inyo is the pride of the Nevada State Railroad Museum. Click on the image, and then drag in the pop-up to rotate the engine on its turntable as it would have appeared in Virginia City.
Lawrence K. Hersh’s book The Central Pacific Railroad Across Nevada 1868 & 1997 compares his modern images taken from the identical perspective of Alfred A. Hart’s 19th-century photographs. In this video five of these then-and-now image pairs are morphed together. Click to load the 2 minute 40 second video.

Some of these items were originally featured on All Around Nevada.