Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad

Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad

Abandoned bed of the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, crossing Soda Lake at Zzyzx, California.
Reporting mark	TT
Locale	Ludlow, California and Beatty, Nevada
Dates of operation	1906–1940
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters	Ludlow, California

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad, the T&T, was a former class II railroad extending roughly 200 miles (320 km) in eastern California and southwestern Nevada.

The railroad was listed as a common carrier, however it was built by Francis Marion Smith the "Borax King" and his Pacific Coast Borax Company primarily to transport borax to processing and market. The line is now completely abandoned.

Its mainline route was through remote reaches of the Eastern Mojave Desert. It ran north from its terminous at the Santa Fe Railway railhead at Ludlow, California; northwards east of Death Valley through the Amargosa Desert and Amargosa Valley, to terminate at Beatty in Nye County, Nevada.

It had spurs, to the mining town of Goldfield; and via its Death Valley Railroad from Death Valley Junction to company borax mines in the Black Mountains. It did not reach its namesake town of Tonopah further northwest.

Grading began on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad—T&T line on July 30, 1905. 50- and 65-pound rails were laid starting on November 19, 1905. The line was completed on October 30, 1907, with the T&T tracks ending at Gold Center, Nevada. From Gold Center the T&T reached into Beatty, Nevada with joint trackage rights with the Brock Road Bullfrog Goldfield Railroad. The T&T also reached Rhyolite, Nevada over the Bullfrog Goldfield trackage via the connecting wye at Gold Center.