I passed through Fernley in late September and stopped at this depot to take some photos. The front of the station was well restored as you can see but the back was in bad shape and apparently not yet completely restored The depot is surrounded by a chain link fence which hampers access but luckily someone was on the grounds and let me take some pictures before he closed up. The Fernley Depot, although it had a steady decline over time, remained open until 1985. At that time the station master's job was eliminated and the depot was closed.
The SP planned to tear down the depot, but in 1986, the Fernley Preservation Society purchased the building for $1.00 and moved it two miles from its original location (N 39 deg. 36.571', W 119 deg. 15.088') to a parcel on Main Street owned by the Town of Fernley. Restoration of the Depot continued after the move, and it reopened on August 11, 2001. More restoration work continues today, with the aid of a Nevada Department of Transportation TEA-21 grant.
The Fernley & Lassen Depot is listed in both the Nevada State Register of Historic Places (9-18-00), and the National Register of Historic Places (Building #05000513, 6-1-05)
Thank you for taking the time to document the depot. I am hoping that we as a community can come together and fix up the depot and the rail cars as this would be a value community asset to lose.
