Recently, I received an inquiry concerning the railroad trackage of the NCO & Western Pacific Railroads as it especially relates to Long Valley. Even in the best of times, the NCO struggled financially, but for decades it did not have competition. That changed in 1909 with the completion of the Western Pacific Railroad through southern Lassen County that siphoned off business. In 1914, the Southern Pacific’s Fernley & Lassen Branch added more financial distress to the NCO.
Western Pacific had its own financial problems as well. It had hoped to build feeder lines to increase its freight tonnage. One market that WP had its sight on was Reno, Nevada. Yet, the WP did not want to build a duplicate line with that of the NCO. Negotiations between the NCO & WP began and in certain ways it was the best of both worlds for the two railroads. The NCO needed a major cash infusiion to pay bond debt and the WP would get its Reno connection. On June 11, 1917 the NCO not only sold a 64 mile segment of its line from Rayl (now Herlong) to Reno, but also its Sierra Valley Railway to Clio, Plumas County. The transaction cost WP $700,000. Since the WP did not need the segment of NCO’s line from Plumas Junction to Rayl, it was pulled up and scrapped. Trivia, for some, the Hackstaff Road from Doyle to Herlong is the old NCO railroad bed.