I do have a reference of the new SLO depot opening date from John Signor's book stating that it "opened" in September of 1943. So your source may be right, or maybe John's source, too, and so on. While John doesn't use a lot of formal footnoting, I've seen numerous of his presentations, and talked to him several times personally. And, from my encounters he does seem to try to do a pretty good job of documenting these things as accurately as possible. So, as to the formal opening date of the new SLO depot, your source may well be right.

The two historic sites on-line I've found about the depot who say it was 1942.... It would be nice to find an article on the dedication, or a really "old head" to help us sort that out. So Graham may be right, as well.... Graham doesn't have a history of just making it up from my readings of his posts.

This confusion may result from the fact that both buildings may have already been being used in some capacities (the old depot still being rebuilt and possibly the new depot), before the formal September 1943 opening of the new depot, or the reopening of the old depot, as the yard office, crew on duty point, and CTC controls for Cuesta. The date for the installation of the CTC for Cuesta, control for which were housed in the old depot, is 1942.

So you both might actually be right about different understandings of the same thing, from the interpretation of different pieces of partial "evidence". As I also was.

Based on the 1971 article, which has un fact checked assertions, you could also infer from that limited "evidence" that it was opened in 1941, which is clearly, most likely wrong.

Which is why I must also apologize for capping on you so hard.

In a presentation on the Coast line many years back in Ventura, I do seem to recall that it was mentioned that this was the last new station opened, because it was already under construction when the war started, at the end of 1941.

And, from a great presentation on Union Station at the Huntington Library a few years back, I learned that the Macy Street bridge (I-10 beginning of the Santa Ana and San Bernardino Fwy's over the LA River) was the "last" WPA project. Which was allowed to be finished as an "essential" war project for improved access to LAUPT. The presenter also spoke at some length about the order to shut down of all non essential civilian and public works construction projects for the duration, and why this project was the only WPA project exempted from that order. With the war on, the "gubmint" didn't need the WPA to create anymore jobs to put folks to work.....