The Nevada Northern Railway built a 150-mile line from Cobre on the Southern Pacific to Ely in 1905-06 to haul ore from Copper Flat mines west of Ely.

Ore was loaded into railroad gondolas at Copper Flat for the trip to the smelter at McGill, over a double-track trestle 1720 feet long. The trestle burned in 1922 and was replaced with an earth fill.

Passenger service and the "school train" carrying McGill youth to Ely High School ended in 1941. Copper ore still moves over the railway between the Copper Flat pit and the McGill concentrator and is still shipped out to Cobre. Freight trains also occasionally still ply the track between Ely and Cobre on the Southern Pacific and Ely and Shafter on the Western Pacific.