First of all, I want to thank Dan Dieter and John Gibson for the information they provided. The first from Gibson, was about Litchfield Depot’s first agent, James “Jimmie” Barnes. In one sense, Barnes was better known as an operator of a dance hall across the tracks near the location of 7-Acres. The hall was on the second floor. According to many an attendee, such as John Theodore, the place would be so packed that it felt as though the building was swaying. In 1931, Cindercone Dance Hall at Standish was the go to place.
Dieter provided me with a reference to a public hearing in 1953, about the closure of the depot. On January 20, 1953 the newly organized Standish Farm Center met with main topic being the proposed closure of the Litchfield Depot scheduled for February 13. Only days prior to the scheduled closing the California Public Utilities Commission, who regulated railroads in the state, informed the Southern Pacific Railway that due to the actions of the Standish Farm Center and the Lassen County Farm Bureau, that the Litchfield Depot would remain open. When it finally closed and was dismantled is still something to research.
1916-1957 was built to end date according to SP records. No other data shown.
“The Litchfield depot was built in 1916. SP intended to close the agency in 1953 and allow Litchfield to become a non-agency station. It appears that the depot was closed in 1956 and retired in 1957. Would imagine it was torn down shortly after that. Believe it was the only open TO office between Wendel and Susanville.”
Courtesy Mike Yoakum from iGroup SP list.
Hope this helps. ~Bill Shippen
“Salt Lake Division employee timetables indicate that Litchfield was discontinued as a train order office sometime between the timetable issued Sept. 27, 1953 and the timetable issued April 25, 1954. It could have remained open as a freight agency beyond that, though”. Cortesy John Sweetser via Espee group