Repair-In-Place (RIP) Building

When in daily operation, freight cars often need running repairs to keep them rolling. However, the constant demand for work would fill the Machine Shop instead of locomotives and other cars needing heavy repairs. So, railroads would construct tracks specifically for the upkeep of freight cars, called RIP tracks.

RIP does not stand for Rest-In-Peace, but rather Repair-In-Place. This was as often times not a car needing heavy repairs, but quick work to get a car back out on the line or to get back to a home terminal for heavy repairs. Other times, it would be responsible for heavier repairs. Our RIP handled both light heavy repairs, especially for the fleet of ore cars. To this day, most major railroad yards still have RIP facilities.

When the Nevada Northern began constructing the East Ely Yard in 1906, they built two tracks designated for RIP work just east of today’s Machine Shop/Engine House facility. No building was constructed, rather it was open to the air. Workshops were constructed to the north side across the Engine House lead tracks for use with the open-air shop.

In 1920, the railroad planned to add a shed over the RIP tracks to better protect the crews from the elements. However, this plan was ultimately cancelled, and the current building was not constructed until 1945.

The building itself is a large open building with concrete foundations supporting a metal structure clad in corrugated iron. The floor itself is hard-packed dirt with two main tracks having bay doors on the east side. A third track is located between the other two exiting out a smaller door on the west side. Additionally, a 15-ton traveling crane was installed overhead.

Interestingly, many of the car crew were not happy about the new building at first. Their immune system was unprepared for the luxury of working inside a building during the winter, and so many of them caught illnesses that first winter! One even went as far as to call it a waste of money.

Near the end of the Nevada Northern in the 1980’s, the railroad was contracted to assemble large haul truck beds for a mine in Tonopah. These were brought to Ely by rail and assembled in the RIP prior to loading on trucks for the trip down US-6 to Tonopah. The building front around RIP 1’s door (the south track) was removed to facilitate this project, the scars of which are still visible.

When the Nevada Northern Railway Museum began in 1984, the Machine Shop/Engine House needed structural work before it could be used. Due to this, #40 was rebuilt in the RIP and operated out of the building until structural work was done in the early 1990’s.

Today, the RIP is one of the most recognizable buildings inside the East Ely Yard, alongside the coal and water tower. The RIP has become the “Restoration-In-Progress” building, allowing projects to move forward without needing precious shop space to open up. Locomotive #81 began its journey to operation in this building, and the overhead crane facilitated lifting the tank off Tank Car W-5. A roadbed was added to one track to allow semi-trucks to access the building for transloading heavy items. The building is also home to our operating fleet of historic wooden passenger equipment: Baggage/RPO #20, Coach #5, Outfit Car #06, and Caboose #3.