Fire Lookout on Red Mountain

From: "Timothy Roumph" tim699r@yahoo.com

Today a friend and I climbed to the lookout on Red Mountain. We took an unmarked trail from the Fordyce Lake Road, very steep but takes you right to the lookout. While up there we met a communications worker at the other end of the mountain and he told me he believed there was a railroad grade nearby, we never saw any grades. My best guess if there was a RR grade it would've been more than likely for logging and at much lower elevations. I have followed many of them in the Plumas and Tahoe National Forests and have become familiar with what they look like even after many decades of the rails having been removed.

Another guy told me the building was used by the railroads to look at the tracks below by I-80 (now) not there then for dangers such as snow blocking the path of the trains. There are still a few poles standing which I believe were telephone line poles, the poles going directly to the building.

Can you ... tell me if the building was used by RR personnel to look for dangers to the track or was only used as a fire lookout? Also any info about any RR grades relatively close to the building? ...

–Tim Roumph, Sparks, Nevada

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