In 1907 the Lassen Advocate provided some interesting statistics concerning the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad (WP). The paper’s editor/publisher, E.W. Hayden, was fascinated that there were to be 75 bridges, most of which were west of Wells, Nevada. The aggregate length of these bridges was estimated at three miles, that would require 20,000 tons of steel to construct.  Then there was the staggering amount of tunnels to be constructed. In a bit of tongue and cheek, Hayden suggested the WP should change its name to the B&T—Bridge and Tunnel Railroad.

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The town came into existence in 1931 when it became the connecting point of the Great Northern and Western Pacific Railroads.  The first name proposed was Big Valley City by Byron S. Greenwood, the promoter of the new town.  When the Postal Department received Greenwood’s petition for a post office for the town, they denied the name. The Department had adopted a policy against three word names.  The Great Northern designated their new station as Bieber, though the town of Bieber was located two miles northeast.  It was suggested to call it West Bieber, but that name did not find acceptance and finally the name Nubieber was chosen.  On July 4,1931, a patriotic celebration was held.   Mrs. A.W. Peterson, President of the Ladies Pioneer Club, gave a brief speech and then introduced Miss Vivian Goddard who christened the townsite of Nubieber by breaking a bottle of wine over the entrance sign.  Nubieber, like so many speculative railroad communities, never reached the expectations of its promoters. In 1940, Greenwood traded all his unsold lots, (the vast majority of the town that encompassed 250-acres), along with his adjoining 630-acre ranch, to E.L. Robertson of San Francisco, for a 60-room apartment building in San Francisco.

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I recently request concerning the Western Pacific Railroad. “Do you have any photos or data about when Long Valley Creek roared and washed out the Western Pacific’s large culvert just north of Doyle during World War II? I remember when it happened, but not the year I remember the trestle built to keep the trains running, while the current structure was being built.” Can anyone help?

In a similar vein, does anyone have photographs of the tracks near Doyle when a portion of the railroad bed was washed away during the floods of January 2017?

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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.

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That was the sideline article that appeared in the Lassen Mail of January 31, 1930. The main headline was the barbaric murder of Robert L. Smith, railroad gang foreman at Karlo.  The Mail wrote: “In addition to establishing the record as the most brutal crime in the history of Lassen County, the murder at Karlo last Sunday morning also established a peak of honesty that will stand for some time.

”While Coroner Edenholm was handling the burned body at the scene of the crime, one of the track laborers came up to him and giving him $25, told him that he owed that amount to the dead man.”

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