Nevada & California Railway
History
In 1900 the Virginia and Truckee Railroad sold the line to the Southern Pacific Company. Two months after the sale to the SP, Silver and gold discoveries at Tonopah, Nevada and later discoveries in Goldfield, Nevada in 1904 inflated traffic to levels unheard of even during the Comstock boom. To meet the need for equipment, the SP shipped narrow gauge equipment from their other narrow-gauge lines, the South Pacific Coast Railroad and the San Joaquin & Sierra Nevada (operated as part of the Northern Railway) to the C&C. The Tonopah boom provided Southern Pacific with a return on its investment.
The heavy traffic from the Tonopah boom created a major bottleneck where standard gauge cars had to be transferred to narrow gauge at Mound House on the V&T. From there cars operated to Sodaville where they interchanged with the Tonopah Railroad. A new mining strike in Goldfield lead the Tonopah Railroad to form the Goldfield Railroad. Initially planned to be narrow gauge, the directors decided to build the line standard gauge and convert the Tonopah railroad as well. The Southern Pacific began conversion of the C&C from Sodaville to Churchill. There the line met a new standard gauge route to Hazen on the SP’s Fallon Branch.
To alleviate the bottleneck of transloading freight from standard gauge cars to narrow gauge at Mound House, the northern 140 miles of the railroad to Mina, Nevada was converted to standard-gauge in 1905. The Southern Pacific formed a new subsidiary, the Nevada & California Railroad on May 11, 1905 to build a standard gauge connection from Hazen on the Fallon Branch, to Churchill, where it joined the original C&C mainline. The C&C itself was then merged into the N&C.
Not to be confused with an earlier Nevada & California Railroad that later became the Nevada – California – Oregon Railway.
Standard gauging of Tonopah Railroad completed August 14, 1905. Tonopah and Goldfield Railroads merge into the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad on November 1, 1905.
When the new Hazen cutoff was completed, the old C&C line from Churchill to Mound House was converted to standard gauge. A new alignment was built that bypassed the town of Hawthorne, establishing the new station of Thorne several miles to the north. The shop facilities of the C&C at Hawthorne were closed, and new facilities were built closer to Tonopah Junction.
The Company’s original plan was to construct the facilities in Sodaville, but the property owners, seizing upon the Tonopah Boom, desired too much for the land. Instead the SP established a new station at Mina, 10 miles north of Sodaville. Mina was named for Ferminia Sarras, a famed prospector and large landowner known regionally as the 'Copper Queen'. Mina became the new division point on the railroad. Shops for narrow and standard-gauge locomotives were established, along with a large interchange yard, stock yard, ice house, freight and passenger depots and a sprawling company town to house the employees who worked there.
In 1909 a boom in output from the Lucky Boy mine to the south of Hawthorne brought interest in re-establishing the railroad to Hawthorne. Though the Southern Pacific drew up a new alignment to connect Thorne with Hawthorne, nothing came of the project.
The railroad was 1912 and merged into the Southern Pacific Railroad and was known as the Nevada & California Branch. It became part of the Salt Lake Division.
Bibliography
Railroads of Nevada & Eastern Caifornia Vol 1
Railroads of Nevada & Eastern California Vol 3
Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge, Farrel Mallory Hope
Slim Rails in the Sand. Turner, George
Slim Princess In The Sunset. Morris, Joe Dale
Steamcars to the Comstock, Beebe & Clegg
A Beautiful Mine