UTAH LINE

UTAH LINE

Established Station: 1870

Formally Abandoned: 1975

Milepost: 679 miles from San Francisco

Utah Line Station, located on the Nevada-Utah state line, has gone by many monikers since 1870. Names even overlapped in time including "Utah Line" (1870-1895), "Stateline Nevada and Utah" (1870-1890), State Line (1875-1887), and "Nevada-Utah Line" (1890-1975).1

The station appears to have been a simple freight siding for local livestock ranchers, presumably both in Utah and Nevada. The earliest date that the station can be firmly established in print is the 1881 SP Station List where it is shown with no agent and no services. However, it is known to have operated as a station since 1870.2 In 1882 it is listed as station 323 ½ (Tecoma being 323 and Lucin 324).

Utah Line becomes a Class C Freight Station in 1889 and continues as such until 1908 when it becomes a Class E Freight Station, essentially handling no freight, until abandonment.3 The station lies within the area between Montello and Lucin that was double tracked in 1911.4 However, that does not seem to have affected its level of service. Utah Line, or any of its monikers, are not listed on any available timetables and, presumably, the station was never intended to be used as a passenger station.

In one acknowledgement of the location, the "U.S. Geological Survey Guidebook of the Western United States, Overland Route", published in 1915 states in passing on a passenger train through Utah Line:

The Utah-Nevada State line, marked by a monument and a fancifully decorative design in set stones at the north side of the track, is passed opposite the first ranch buildings seen west of Great Salt Lake.5

1 Lynn D. Farrar, Listing of Overland Route Stations and Mileage: Central Pacific Railroad Southern Pacific Railroad, 1866-1996

http://www.cprr.org/Museum/CP _MP0_OVERLAND_ROUTE.html (accessed 2-20-21). 2 Don Strack, online resource, https://utahrails.net/sp/sp-in-utah-stations.php (accessed 10-18-20). 3 Southern Pacific Company, List of Officers, Agencies and Stations {San Francisco: Southern Pacific Company, 1881-1956), on file at Sacramento: California State Railroad Museum Library. 4 John R. Signor, Southern Pacific's Salt Lake Division (Berkeley: Signature Press, 2007), 92. s Lee T. Willis, Guidebook of the Western United States, Part 8. The Overland Route, Bulletin 612

(Washington: U.S. Geological Survey, 1915), 124. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0612/report.pdf (accessed 12-7-20).