The Nevada-California-Oregon Railway (NCO) initially had several names. A reader chastised that an article I wrote and labeled it the NCO, though when in fact it was known as Nevada & Oregon. While guilty as charged, for simplicity I just refer to the railroad as the NCO.
To set the record straight here is origins of the multiple names and nicknames of the said railroad. Established in 1879, its original name was the Nevada & Oregon Railroad Company. In 1885, the name was changed to the Nevada & California. In 1888, the name was changed to the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway. The former names were still; valid due to unpaid bonds under those names. On January 1, 1893 the Nevada-California-Oregon (N-C-O) was officially adopted for the railroad properties.
These initials N-C-O became target for criticism of the railroad’s poor service. The N-C-O received such dreadful titles as the Narrow Crooked & Ornery, the Northern California Outrage, Never Comes Over and the Nevada-California Occasional. One of my favorites was peened the J.M. Tremain editor/publisher of Susanville newspaper the Lassen Weekly Mail. Tremain called the N-CO a tri-weekly. “It goes Reno one week and tries to return the next.”