Ghost towns are killer. I've wandered around Bodie a few times in eastern California. It is a state park and a bunch of the buildings have various items from when it was an active town visible through the windows. Goldfield looks similar to Bodie.
On trains have you been to the INW Rail museum out west of Reardan? It is a nifty place and they have a little narrow gauge outside. Where I grew up in California we had the Sugar Pine Mountain Railroad that was one of the old logging train engines that winds around the forest for 4 miles. I rode it a bunch of times as a kid and have fond memories of it.
Aren't ghost towns the greatest?! I just read a book about a well preserved ghost town in the New Mexican desert, The Scorpion's Tail by Preston and Adams, and between that, reading your reply, and writing about Goldfield, now I want to kick around an abandoned burg for some reason lol.
Ooh, I have seen the INW Rail Museum when I have driven through Reardan on the way to the Davenport stockyard sale, but haven't had a chance to stop, maybe this summer I will wheel over there, it's not that much of a drive. I mean, it's TRAINS, lol lol
You know, it sounds like you kicked around a bit in the Sierra's like my hubs. He grew up in downtown San Fran, but his uncle owned the general store in Volcano, CA and he spent a lot of time up there. And I would love to take a ramble on The Logger some day, that is so cool! Have you rode the little train at Silverwood?