Tahoe Addendum

The disposition of the vessels belonging to the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation Co.

As business drew to a close, the boats serving the Bliss transportation enterprise would no longer be needed. At the time this was an inevitable conclusion. No one could have foreseen the impact of tourism on the Lake Tahoe area. What had been a resort for the elite was to become a getaway for the everyman. Skiing and gambling increased the volume of people visiting the lake by geometric proportions. This was all in the future during the Thirties and Forties.

So the vessels sat derelict at a dock near Tahoe City. William S. Bliss had determined that it would be more appropriate to sink the boats rather than to let them molder into unpleasant ghosts of their past. The plans were laid and put into motion.

In September of 1940, Lloyd Saxon was assigned to tow the S.S. Tahoe from its northwest resting place to a location off of Deadman's Point at the north end of Glenbrook Bay. It was to be scuttled in water shallow enough to be seen from overhead. This vessel had been launched in 1896 to much fanfare from a location not at all distant from its final resting place. The S.S. Tahoe is in about 400 feet of water and has been visited by many divers through the years. A proposal was made to raise the boat but the proponents were dissuaded by the Bliss family.

Two other members of the Bliss lake touring unit were dispatched by towing them to a point in a straight line running from Tahoe City to Glenbrook Bay and scuttling them. Eleven years before the scuttling of the Tahoe, the Meteor had been towed out in the lake and sunk. It had been painted and cleaned for the occasion. Following the S.S.Tahoe's demise in September of 1940, the Tallac was scuttled in the middle of the lake. She had originally belonged to E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin who owned the Tallac Resort on the southwestern shore of the Lake.

Little would have one thought at the time of these boats sad endings that tourist boats would again ply the waters of Lake Tahoe. But today a cruise can be taken from South Lake Tahoe or Zepher Cove in "touristy" boats that are poor replacements for the originals. Better these than nothing, it must be said.
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The "Glenbrook" and its Predicament.

L.T.Ry.&T. Co. No. 2, the "Glenbrook" is another resource that, while not "scuttled", is certainly in need of help. It lays in pieces at the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City. It was disassembled 20 odd years ago in anticipation of rebuilding it to an operational state. A boiler was ordered and evidently the original was destroyed. The new boiler did not fit! Now the locomotive is in a semi-permanent state of future rebuilding. It is hoped that at some time in the not too distant future, funding will be made available to at least return the locomotive to display condition. It had resided for years beside the former U.S. Mint in Carson City. It was the first narrow gauge locomotive we had ever seen!
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Locating The Present Roadbed.

It seems that the roadbed of the narrow gauge and the successor Southern Pacific branch can be discerned at many locations along Highway 89 between Truckee and Tahoe City. Under the location of the outcropping "Big Chief" on the eastern bank of the river there is an obvious grade remaining. It would appear that the bikeway/pathway north of Tahoe City takes the route of the railroad. A person has only to slightly skew reality to imagine little woodburning locomotives jauntily running along beside the rushing waters of the Truckee River. What a ride that must have been! Tahoe Tavern is now a private residential reserve and access to the area is barred. Going to the small park at the dam that regulates the lake level (another interesting story), and strolling out to the shoreline, a person can approximate the idea of the trains going out on a pier and meeting the lake circling boats exchanging passengers. Since we at Narrow Gauge on the Net are hopelessly lost in the past, we enjoy the relative quiet to peer at the lake as it must have been a century ago. The S.S. Tahoe pulls away from the pier and the train clatters back to the shore. All is right with the world.
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The "Rattler"

Surprisingly enough, the open to the breezes, passenger car the "Rattler" is still in existence. It is now parked at the Georgetown Loop. Attempts to negotiate its return to California have not been successful so far. We will try to get some photos of it in its present condition. We do not know what that condition is at the present.
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