Born in Lund, Nevada on April 7, 1921, T.J. Lani moved to Ely first gaining work as an emergency fireman around 1941 and was promoted to a regular fireman in 1942. He left to serve in the Navy for World War 2 before returning to the NNRy.

Working his way up he eventually became a locomotive engineer working on both the steam and diesel locomotives. In 1955 he requested a one-year leave-of-absence to try and go into business for himself but ended up returning to the railroad.

When museum operations commenced in 1986, T.J. was one of the first volunteers, bringing a wealth of knowledge and skills, to bring the railroad back to life. He worked hard to bring locomotive #40 and later locomotive #93 back to life and trained crews on how to operate them.

Known to be a little gruff, a steam crew volunteer recalled one run in with T.J. The crew had over fired the locomotive, and black smoke was billowing from the stack when T.J. came out of the shop. Climbing into the cab to confront the crew he simply stated “if you had worked for this railroad you would have all been fired!” Despite this gruffness, T.J. was well respected by the early volunteers who attribute much of their knowledge to his teachings.

T.J. passed away on September 25, 2010 and is buried in Ely.