Meanwhile, Smith went to the Santa Fe Line and received tie in access at Ludlow, California, thus beginning the race of the rails to the Bullfrog District. The Las Vegas and Tonopah, coming from the South at the Las Vegas Station, was financed by Senator William A. Clark and his brother J. Ross Clark, both wealthy financiers, with the additional backing of Richard C. Kerens, an ambassador who had amassed a fortune in railroads. With J. Ross Clark, President, Arthur McGuire, Chief Engineer, Frank Grace, Superintendent, Charles O. Whittmore, Chief Counsel and Public Relations, the road was started. Clark organized the Nevada Rapid Transit.

Frank Grave, as superintendent of the road crew of 15 teams and 22 men, began building the road. The road paralleled what would become the railroad grade. December 28, 1905, the first locomotive LV&T #1 arrived at the railhead in the tent camp of Las Vegas. Jan. 4, 1906, they began spiking down on the grade that Smith had built, using the rails Smith had sold to Clark when access had been denied him. The first scheduled run of the Las Vegas & Tonopah that arrived in Beatty, on October 22, 1906, was cause for celebration. In fact the celebration was so huge that six weeks later, the arrival in Rhyolite was soft pedaled. Meanwhile, the Tonopah & Tidewater had been building North from Ludlow, California, arriving in Beatty almost a year behind the Las Vegas & Tonopah and six months behind the Bullfrog - Goldfield, which arrived in Beatty April 25, 1907.

The Tonopah & Tidewater was approached to manage the Bullfrog-Goldfield shortly after its arrival, thus giving a rail line that ran all the way to Los Angeles, giving fact to the name Tonopah & Tidewater. (Granted, there was a change of lines at Ludlow, to the AT & SF rails). The panic of 1907 and the slow failing of the mines made all three rail lines operate at a loss. Finally in 1918, the Las Vegas & Tonopah was allowed to cease operation and pull their rails.The iron was used in the war effort of World

The romance of the rails in this area, was both one of glory and one of sorrow. For the promise that looked so good at the start and all the trials and stumbles trying to achieve the gold at the rainbows end, only to have it fade just as it was achieved, is the story of most all of the GOLD RUSH areas. All the promise that was there at the start, all the dreams that rode the rails into and out of the district, have vanished like dust on the wind, like the rails that rolled across this desert vastness, a memory fading in the twilight.