Along The Line:
Lookout Junction

#16:2 arriving at Lookout Junction about 1940. The depot with the train order semaphore is just left of the center of the image, with a section house behind it. Cars are on the two interchange tracks, a third would be added a few years after this photo. T.E. Glover.

#26 and #19 passing the water tank while switching the interchange in the late 1940s. Martin E. Hansen collection.

A GN steam locomotive passing the same tank. T.E. Glover.

Great Northern #3101 in front of the Lookout depot. Jeff Moore collection.


The only known recorded time a GN or BN locomotive operated over the branch came in May 1974 when BN sent a weed spraying train over the line. McCloud River was supposed to provide the power, but the air compressor on the engine heading to Lookout failed. McCloud arranged to use BN power on the train, which turned out to be their #1976, still in almost full Spokane, Portland & Seattle paint. The weed spraying train is seen here being placed into the interchange tracks for the McCloud crew to take over. George Landrock photo.


Lookout Junction in the early 1980s, looking north. The section house Fred Torres occupied is on the right side of the BN main line. Pat Driscoll photo, Jeff Moore collection.

A McCloud River hi-rail pickup sitting on the balloon track. Pat Driscoll photo, Jeff Moore collection.

A BN speeder in front of one of the section sheds in Lookout Junction. Pat Driscoll photo, Jeff Moore collection.


A caboose sits on the balloon track while the McCloud locomotives switch the interchange tracks. Greg Brown.

#38 and #39 lead a train starting its return trip to McCloud out of the balloon track. Greg Brown.


The #38 rolling past the section sheds a month before the end of operations. Roger Titus.

After spotting the outbound loads the #38 is picking up the inbound cars, two empty centerbeams and a gondola. Roger Titus.


The mouth of the balloon track in the summer of 2005. A year and a half have passed since the last train, and an out of service tag hands on the switch. Jeff Moore.

The BN mainline to Klamath Falls is on the right while the north part of the balloon track swings off to the left. The water tower once sat between the two tracks. Jeff Moore.

Looking south into the empty yard six months after the last Lookout Job operated to the junction. Jeff Moore.