Earlier this week I drove west out of Death Valley Park and north to Bishop, California. Bishop is located in the scenic Owens Valley. The eastern face of the Sierras provides a fantastic backdrop. About 4 miles outside Bishop is the Laws Railroad Museum. Laws was once a station on Carson and Colorado Railroad. This narrow guage railroad was operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad until 1960. Some how it got the Slim Princess nickname, no doubt a reference to the 3 feet between it's rails. It was also known by the less flattering but descriptive moniker of the railroad from nowhere to nowhere. Like many railroads neither of the locations specified in the name, Carson, Nevada nor the Colorado River, were ever reached. 
The town of Laws disappeared before the railroad was abandoned. But the original station, turntable, water tank, oil tank, and a few other railroad structures still exist today. Although none of the town's original buildings are left, the museum has moved several structures from other locations to recreate a village similar to the original Laws settlement. These relocated buildings house displays of relics of the historical era. Amazingly, there is no admission charged and the museum operates entirely on donations and volunteers. These volunteers are very gracious and helpful to visitors.
One of the 4-6-0 oil-burners which operated on this line heads up a short consist of freight cars and a combination coach/freight car. The locomotive is no longer operable, but it is cosmetically maintained. the museum does have a fully restored and operating Brill car. It is one of only three narrow guage 55 class Brill cars in existence and the only one operating. This car originally ran on the Death Valley Railroad to transport tourists from a connection with the standard guage Tonopah & Tidewater at Death Valley Junction to the Ryan mine and town-site in Death Valley.
This handsome old car, unfortunately, was not operating and sat inside the locomotive shop on the day of my visit. One of the volunteers who had restored the Brill car was there, however, spent some time answering my questions and filling me in on the details of the restoration process. He also told me of their hopes to someday extend the tracks at least a couple miles beyond the immediate grounds of the museum to give visitors a real experience of what it was like to ride these early self-propelled cars. If you're ever near Bishop, California, I recommend you visit the Laws Railroad Museum.
