About a week ago Ken O’Connell relayed the following message, and an interesting train question at the conclusion. Hopefully, there are astute readers that  can answer Ken’s question. You may contact him at oconnell@uoregon.edu. Of course, you can always share you reply here, to enlighten us.

Ken wrote; “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 in town and return to our home in Oakland, CA the next day.. 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?”

 Tim