When first constructed in the 19th century, it was a commercial freight railroad (reporting mark VT) which was originally built to serve the Comstock Lode mining communities of northwestern Nevada.

At its height, the railroad's route ran from Reno south to the state capital at Carson City.

Sharon eventually (with the addition of $500,000 in county bonds to move the railroad, equal to $16,955,556 today), envisioned a railroad to run from Virginia City,[2]: 136, 137  through Gold Hill where the first of the Comstock Lode was mined, passing the mills along the river, and ending at the state capital, Carson City.

[2]: 137  Ground was broken on February 18, 1869, two miles below Gold Hill on American Flats when grading crews went to work.

The first track was laid and the ceremonial first spike driven on September 28, 1869 by superintendent Henry M. Yerington, with the first passenger train pulling into Virginia City on Jan. 29, 1870.

The Lyon, with the distinction of being the first locomotive for the V&T RR, was also the engine that pulled the work train, arriving in Virginia City on January 28, 1870, and completing the initially planned route.

This milestone was also marked by the opening of the Crown Point Ravine trestle and the first crossing of the work train, engine No.

This was from the 700 foot level of the old north mine, and dumped directly into the cars, the railroad passing within a few feet of the shaft.

It also states that (after transportation and milling costs, or "yield under the stamps") the result would be around $17 to the ton coming back to the mine.

[1]: 14  The V&T ran 30–45 trains per day at the height of the Big Bonanza from Carson to Virginia City and Gold Hill.

[3]: 101  The first train to ran end-to-end from Virginia City to Reno on August 24, 1872,[3]: 11  pulled appropriately by the road's newest locomotive at the time, No.

The railroad ran from Mound House, just east of Carson City, to the southern part of California, and supposedly to the Colorado River where new mining claims were being struck.

In the words of Ogden Mills, "Either we built this line 300 miles too short or 300 years too early", reflecting V&T's attitude towards the railroad.

The C&C became prosperous for the Southern Pacific (as well as the V&T, which had intermediate rail access), as wagon trains would run for miles through the desert to reach the narrow-gauge line, or later on the Tonopah and Goldfield Railroad which would then carry it back to the V&T at the Mound House junction.

[1]: 23  This allowed Southern Pacific trains to run along the V&T through to Mound House to the Nevada & California, and on down to Tonopah.

[1]: 24  In response to agricultural and cattle ranch concerns, the V&T built a short branch line to Minden, about 26 miles south of Carson City, in 1906.

[1]: 24 The Virginia and Truckee's decline began as early as 1924, the first year in which the railroad failed to make a profit.

Passenger revenue was on a steady decline, due to the increased use of the automobile on the ever-expanding highway system in the US.

[1]: 31  He personally paid the deficits in the railroad's operating costs as a nod to the past and his family's involvement in the early days of Virginia City.

26 was originally scheduled to haul the last train, but after making its run on May 1, 1950, the single-stall locomotive shed it was stored in on the banks of the Truckee River in Reno caught fire.

After gaining approval from Storey County, reconstruction of the line began from F Street to the Eastern portal of Tunnel #4.

Officials with the public Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V&T Railway held a "silver spike" ceremony on January 3, 2006, in Carson City to commemorate the completion of two miles of track near Gold Hill.

Then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev), who was instrumental in securing $10 million in federal funding for the project, and Nevada Lieutenant Governor Lorraine Hunt, who secured an additional $1 million in state funding for the project, both spoke at the ceremony.

The completion of the first phase of the extension saw the last train of the day venturing beyond Gold Hill and to American Flats, over a massive fill of the Overman Pit, near the Crown Point Ravine.

In addition, an operating 5/8-scale replica of the V&T locomotive, "Reno", has been running on the Washington Park and Zoo Railway since 1959.

[18] In May 2013, the railroad acquired a GE 44-ton switcher engine and three passenger cars from the defunct Yuma Valley Railway.

25852, began being used on daily trains to Gold Hill in August 2021, and is used to increase capacity on busy weekends.

29, along with cars 101–103, were trucked out to Pawhuska, Oklahoma, to appear in the Martin Scorsese film, Killers of the Flower Moon.

[32] In February 2022, the V&T acquired three pieces of equipment from the Fillmore and Western Railway in Ventura County, California.

1059, which famously appeared in Back to the Future Part III as the lead locomotive of the train that destroys the DeLorean time machine,[33] was acquired as a replacement for D-2.