A Central Pacific Railroad freight train departing Cisco in Placer County, California, is documented in this albumen stereoview published by Thomas Houseworth & Co. of San Francisco, issued as number 1254 in their Central Pacific Railroad series and copyrighted in 1868. The orange-bordered mount bears the series title in ornate script on the left tab and copyright text on the right, with a pencil notation reading "Ince 1870" along the lower left.

Two locomotives face the camera head-on at the lower center of the frame, their cowcatchers prominent against a foreground of large granite boulders and raw earthwork. Behind the engines, a string of freight cars recedes into a sprawling mountain depot settlement of wooden structures, with dense conifer forest blanketing the hillside above. The elevated vantage point captures the full sweep of the Cisco yard and surrounding Sierra Nevada terrain.

Thomas Houseworth & Co., operating at 317 and 319 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, was awarded a Bronze Medal at the Paris International Exhibition of 1867 for the superiority of their stereoscopic and mammoth photographic views of Pacific Coast scenery, as noted on the reverse. The reverse also bears the penciled notation "35c" in the upper right corner, and the catalog number 1254 with the full title caption appears printed along the lower right of the mount face.