Unfortunately, when it comes to the history of the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway (NCO) the majority of published accounts cover the basics. Yet, there is a tremendous wealth of material that remains untouched in a variety  of records, which researchers have neglected and this is just one example.

Today’s post is a perfect example of such research. The material comes from the Lassen County Coroner’s Inquest that involved a NCO train collision at Horse Lake. On February 23, 1915, Victor Robinson boarded a NCO passenger train at Lakeview, Oregon  bound for Reno, on his way to Sacramento. According to E.G. Ryder, the Traveling Freight and Passenger Agent for the NCO that the passenger train had stopped at Horse Lake Station and was just starting again when a NCO livestock train, consisting of fourteen cars loaded with cattle, also heading south, struck the passenger train. Ryder was in the caboose of the stock train, so he was not sure of all the details. Ryder stated, “That Robinson was caught between the two cars on the passenger train. There were two coaches and Robinson was between the two coaches on the platform.” When the collision occurred Robinson was ejected from the platform died immediately from injuries. The account is rather confusing, but I shared it with a person familiar with the NCO cars and he was under the impression that Robinson was thrown under the wheels between the two coaches upon impact.

Ryder was the only person to testify at the inquest. The twelve men summoned for the coroner’s jury and this was their conclusion, “The Jury came to the verdict that death was caused by a collision of passenger and extra stock train through the negligent neglect of employees in charge of trains operated by the NCO.”

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