Along the Line:
McCloud Depot Building
Original Depot Building
An early view of the original McCloud depot. Photograph courtesy of Heritage Junction Museum of McCloud, Inc.
The railroad's #12 sitting in front of the original depot building. Travis Berryman collection.
Postcard view of the original depot building in winter. Jeff Moore collection.
Second Depot Building
In 1929 the railroad demolished the original depot structure and built in its place this fine two story structure, which housed the offices of the McCloud River Railroad until the building burned to the ground on 22 December 1991. The piping coming out the left side of the building was part of a pneumatic tube messaging system used to pass messages and paperwork between the depot, the company store building, and the lumber company office building. The log cabin style siding on the building was a signature product of Shevlin Pine Sales at the time, and it used on several buildings built in McCloud in that time frame. T.E. Glover collection.
The north end of the structure in 1959. Ed Burggraf photo.

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Pat Driscoll shot the following six photos of the depot building in the early 1980s.


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A clock in the depot building. Drew Toner photo.
Only the two story brick vault remained after the fire. The railroad leased office space in the old lumber company headquarters building until the McCloud Railway remodeled and exapnded a corner of the shop building shortly after acquiring the property. The McCloud Railway drew up plans for a third depot structure to occupy the site after they got seriously into the passenger business in the middle 1990s, but in the end they placed one of their heavyweight passenger cars on a short stretch of track for use as a depot and gift shop, complete with loading ramps and decks. In 1994 the railroad moved the tank from Howard to the depot site.
The two story brick vault formerly inside the second depot building. Jeff Moore.

The Shasta Sunset Dinner Train cars sitting in the depot in March 2011, after the train ceased operations but before the cars had been sent to Idaho. Jeff Moore.

The heavyweight passenger car turned depot and surrounding platforms in 2013 after the dinner train cars had been removed from the property.

The water tank moved from Hooper. The town shut the water supply to the tank off a few months before this photo, and the tank is already starting to collapse. Jeff Moore.

Another shot of the heavyweight passenger car used as a depot. Jeff Moore.

An overview of the depot site in 2013. The converted bulkhead flat to the left held the kitchen facilities where all meals served on the dinner train had been prepared. The two story brick vault is to the right. Jeff Moore.

One of the provisions of Jeff Forbis's will conveyed the old depot site to the local community health clinic, and in 2016 Carlton Trucking from Burney helped 4-Rails Inc. clear all remaining railroad items from the site. Carlton purchased and transported to their base in Burney the kitchen car, and the owner of the old McCloud hospital purchased and moved to their grounds the depot car and water tank. Shortly after the date of this photo Carlton removed the rails to the depot site. Concerns over locating a health clinic in the middle of the downtown area caused the clinic to place the property up for sale, and the owners of the old company store building purchased the land. In November 2020 the owners purchased the old rectory building from the Catholic church and moved it to the former depot site. Jeff Moore.
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