[2] The decade of the 1900s was a period of frenzied railroad-building in southwestern Nevada, with rich silver ore discovered at Tonopah in 1900[3] and gold-bearing quartz at Goldfield in 1902.

[1] This made it possible for passengers from the East or West Coasts to travel to the northern end of the Nevada and California spur line by fast Pullman service.

[5] Discontinuance of the Express name and Pullman service might be because the final leg of the journey, from the Southern Pacific main line at Hazen, Nevada, over the N&C and T&G to Goldfield, had become very slow.

[1] Gold production in the Esmeralda district peaked only a few years after the first discoveries of precious metal, with declines seen as early as 1911 and continuing thereafter.

[1] Two or three weekly steam trains continued to run; the engines also pulled freight cars to serve the needs of the district's residual goods traffic.

[1] During the World War II years, with gasoline rationing starting in 1942, the T&G was the only means of ingress and egress for many of the remaining ranchers and miners of southwestern Nevada.

[1] With the reappearance of gasoline and shutdown of the army airfield in late 1945, the Tonopah and Goldfield was quickly faced with lethal business conditions.