Photo Courtesy of the Nevada State Railroad Museum

This photo shows an excurion of the Blair Baseball Team riding the McKeen Motor Car “Mary” to Tonopah.

The Silver Peak Railroad McKeen Car #12 “Mary” was one of few McKeen Cars to be named.  The others being the “Cuyamaca,” “Kulshan,” “Anoka,” ” Minneapolis,” and post-factory and nicknames like “Bear Creek, ” “Comet,” and ” Bluebird.”

The “Mary” could haul about 50 people and had about 13′ of the car devoted to baggage and possibly tools since the car was used for logging and mining use.  The car was 55′ long, weighed about 30 tons.  The car was built in 1908 and was builder’s number 021.

Silver Peak Railroad

“The Silver Peak opened in 1906 and operated 17½ miles of track in Esmeralda County – from Blair to the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad at Blair Junction. The line primarily served the 120-stamp Silver Peak mill. Operating with a two-man crew, the passenger-and-baggage motor car’s leisurely trip over the line took 45 minutes. The fare was $1.75 and in 1912 passengers averaged three per trip.

Dismantling of the mill of the Pittsburg Silver Peak Gold Mining Co. at Blair began late in 1916 and railroad operations ended in 1918. The Red River Lumber Co. at Westwood, California, bought the Silver Peak McKeen car. Red River Lumber presumably transported loggers to remote locations on the car, but without much success. Apparently the car was soon retired. Its only known images on the Red River are out-of-service photographs. After sitting unused for many years at Westwood the car was cut up in the early 1940s when wartime scrap prices were high.”

–Nevada Travel.net