In December 1908, the NCO Railroad finally made it all the way north to Alturas. One would think the residents would be thrilled, but with a major increase of frieght rates, it had a chilling effect. Then, when the NCO built its passenger depot on 12th Street, far from everything else in town, the residents complained. To appease the situation, the railroad carefully disassembled the stone depot, numbering each stone, and once dismantled the stones were reassembled at the new location on Fourth Street. The depot closed in 1938, and in 1962, the Alturas Garden Club took over the property and still maintains it.
Hello Tim,
Recently I’ve been traveling through Alturas each time to drive to Reno to see my sister who is in Care.
I have a question regarding the railroad transport in the 1940s and 1950s.
My father, Daniel O’Connell, worked for Southern Pacific as an electrician. He would often ride along as several engines would pull a freight train that needed electrical work in one of them.
Sometimes he would stay over night at a station town and return to our home in Oakland, CA.
My mother would say, “Your father will return tomorrow as he is staying in Alturas.”
I see the hundreds of freight cars on tracks west of town. What role did Alturas play in those years as a station on the trains from the bay area?