Steam was king in 1910. But William McKeen had a different idea. He built a seventy-foot-long, steel-plated beast with a wind-splitting knife nose and round porthole windows. It looked like a submarine on wheels. This particular unit, originally shipped as factory number 70, rolled into Carson City to solve a massive financial headache. The Virginia and Truckee Railroad was bleeding cash on short-run passenger trips. Dragging a massive steam locomotive just to move a handful of commuters made no sense. McKeen's self-propelled gasoline railcar solved this. Power came from a monstrous engine. The chain-drive transmission was notoriously finicky. Actually, it lacked a reverse gear. Drivers had to stop the engine and restart it backward just to back up. Yet, it slashed operating costs by half.
By 1945, the V&T couldn't justify keeping the worn-out car on the tracks. So they stripped it. They sold the metal body to a local businessman who turned the sleek transport into a diner. It sat on Carson Street. Hungry Nevadans ate burgers inside the former railcar, then known as "The Super Diner." Later, it housed a plumbing supply business. For decades, locals walked right past the metal shell without realizing they were looking at a rare piece of industrial archaeology. Its unique round windows were boxed over with wood and plaster. It seemed destined for the scrap heap. But the state museum stepped in. They bought the carcass in 1995.
Restoring the car took years of meticulous labor. Volunteers and experts basically rebuilt the vehicle from the ground up, even machining a replica of the complicated 200-horsepower powerplant. Today, it stands as the only fully operational McKeen motor car left on Earth. That explains its national historic designation. This is far from a static, dusty monument. During holidays, the Nevada State Railroad Museum actually runs the car on its demonstration tracks. Passengers step inside to hear the engine roar. They experience the exact vibration and smell of early gasoline travel. It is loud and bumpy. Absolutely real.
