It was the last locomotive acquired new by the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, and pulled the last commercial train for the V&T on May 31, 1950, the date that freight and passenger services officially terminated for the company.

In 1948, #27's boiler permit expired, and the locomotive was retired by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC),[4] leaving only #26 and a giant Alco 75-ton 2-8-0 known as the "Second #5" (due to its numbering with its previous owner) in service with the bankrupt V&T Railroad.

[3]: 19  In 1949, #27 was granted a one-day operating permit to serve as a special train for the California-Nevada Railroad Historical Society, before being put back into its engine house to resume retirement.

That summer it was used in the 1951 serial movie Roar of the Iron Horse before the Purdy Company, which now owned #27, scrapped the remainder of the V&T railroad.

In 2018, #27 traded places with Virginia and Truckee 18 Dayton, being moved to the Comstock History Center, which coincidentally is built in the same parking lot that it was stored from the 70's until the 90's.