The narrow-gauge South Pacific Coast Railroad, built with James Fair’s Comstock silver money, laid its tracks through Campbell’s land in 1877. Its first stop here was a flag stop called Lovelady, where gravel for ballast was loaded.
In 1886 Benjamin Campbell deeded an acre for a depot, and a six-by-eighteen-foot telegraph office opened where Orchard City Drive now crosses the tracks. The stop was known as Campbell by 1890. Today’s Downtown Campbell light rail station stands close to the same spot.