Ombey

The railroad siding at Ombey, 722.6 miles from San Francisco, was completed in 1879. Within two years, a section house, tool house, and Chinese bunk and cookhouses had been built, and the nearby facilities at Gravel Pit were abandoned in favor of the new siding. Ombey served as a fuel stop because wood from the Raft River Mountains to the north was plentiful. Located among foothills, it also functioned as the section station near the summit of Red Dome Pass. Helper locomotives assisted trains over Red Dome Hill, sometimes requiring as many as four additional engines to pull heavy loads up the pass. In 1900, a wye was built to turn newer, heavier locomotives. A small town grew at Ombey to provide freight services to local ranchers and sheep herders.

Utah · United States