Circa 1990 - Lakeview had three lumber mills running - Lakeview Lumber, Goose Lake Lumber and Fremont Lumber, only the latter is still in business now a Collins Pine mill. All three mills were shipping lumber and chips. They were also trucking salvaged rail from Weyerhaeuser's woods line, loading it at Lakeview and shipping it to Mexico. A few years later, there was a whole log chipper installed that only ran for a while. The former Goose Lake site at the end of track was originally an uranium plant, now is the perlite plant. After the county bought the Lakeview branch, Kyle was given the contract to operate it, but backed out at the last minute so Great Western got the contract. The county ran it themselves for a while after that, then to Modoc Northern, now Lake Railway. Great Western's NCO division ran 2 or 3 times a week with around 20 cars each trip. At Alturas, they weighed the cars, separated east and west, and if they were short on empties might wait for the Canby local. The Canby local came out of K Falls, but not sure how many days. Had a set of SD9s, took chips and any northbound lumber back to K Falls. There was also a propane dealer in Alturas, and there was a lumber mill at Juniper just outside Alturas. I'm not sure when the mill at Canby quit. (Canby, California not to be confused with Canby, Oregon outside Portland) The line was DTC, and Great Western had to get the Alturas block to go around the wye, using the main to back into the yard (no longer yard limits). There was some kind of mineral (perlite?) loading at Perez using a ramp.

Historically, the Lakeview branch had a variety of lumber mills along the line, plus some grain, livestock and general freight. Alturas had the same, and the mill at Canby used to have a logging railroad supplying it. I don't think there were any major shippers other than the Lakeview and Susanville branches, Alturas and Canby, and up towards the Klamath Valley.

"The Modoc - Southern Pacific's Back Door to Oregon" by Bowden and Dill is an excellent resource including first hand accounts. It pretty much covers the history up until the Modoc Northern fiasco and current operations by Lake Railway.

I know the Susanville branch is scrapped, but is the line still in place to Wendel from Flanigan? There was some scam to buy that in the abandonment/OFA process.

I wouldn't compare APB to CTC because I don't think the dispatcher has any controls over the signals. I would equate it more with an automatic interlocking - first train to hit the approach gets the block.

Wendel had one of the older rotaries assigned to it years ago, presumably for the line between Susanville and Westwood which can get some snow. I believe there is a picture of a rotary in steam days on the Lakeview branch after an unusual storm. Great Western did end up with a train stuck in the snow that had to be dug out, but that was primarily due to snow drifting into a cut to several feet between trains.