It was decided that the best plan was to build north to the Columbia River to serve cattle ranches and farms in northeastern California and eastern Oregon.

The company decided to lay narrow-gauge track because it was cheaper than standard gauge construction.

When the railroad built a new roundhouse in the mid-1910s, the locomotive house was converted into a machine shop.

Because the WP could not use the narrow-gauge terminal facilities such as the roundhouse and machine shop, it either sold them or leased them.

[1] The building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places due to its association with the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway and the railroad development in Nevada.