McCloud River Railroad
Equipment Roster
Shasta Sunset Dinner Train Equipment

When the McCloud Railway Company management decided to launch a dinner train operation in the fall of 1995, the road possessed only three pieces of dedicated passenger equipment, all open-air flatcars built for excursion work. The search for cars suitable for the proposed operation led the company to an auction held in Atlantic, Iowa, on 19 July 1995.

Around 1971 a man named Jesse Wade started accumulating railroad equipment at a place he called Purple Martin Junction, near Griggsville, Missouri. The collection grew to eventually include one large steam locomotive, a caboose, and thirty-three passenger cars, nine of which were heavyweight passenger cars on six axle trucks originally from the Illinois Central Railroad. Wade called the venture the Purple Martin Train, and he converted many of the passenger cars into exhibit halls for a natural history musum built around the Purple Martin bird species. Wade painted most of the cars into a purple paint scheme with silver roofs. Dwindling business forced Wade to close the museum in 1983, and he turned down several offers to sell pieces of the collection. Finally, in July 1987 Wade sold the locomotive, the caboose, and twenty-nine of the cars to the Atlantic & Pacific Railway, which planned to use the equipment to start a tourist train on 27 miles of former Rock Island tracks the company owned between Atlantic and Audubon, Iowa. For various reasons the excursion train never got started, and the railroad equipment became a static museum display in Atlantic, Iowa. By early 1995 it too closed, and the owners announced the auction. McCloud Railway attended the sale and walked away with two of the Illinois Central coaches, which they shipped to McCloud for rebuilding into dinner train cars.

The immediate success of the dinner train prompted the McCloud Railway to start looking for more equipment, and in the fall of 1996 the company learned that two more of the Illinois Central cars from the Purple Martin train were available. The Northern Nevada Railroad, which at the time had started rebuilding the old Nevada Northern Railway in eastern Nevada to haul copper for a reopened copper mine, had purchased two of the IC cars; however, in 1996 the copper mine changed hands and the new owner wanted to run the railroad themselves, which forced the Northern Nevada to shut down. McCloud Railway purchased the NN's two cars, along with a former Milwaukee Road coach. Then, in 1998 another party that had purchased three of the former IC heavyweight cars agreed to see them to the McCloud Railway as well.

Specifics on the cars used in the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train are as follows, in numerical order.


2801- named Trinity. Built 1925 by Pullman, Lot #4858, as IC #2265. Originally configured as an 88-seat coach, then Compartment Coach #2265, and finally modernized 68-seat divided chair car #2801. Rebuild dates of 1936, 1938, and 1942. Acquired fall 1996 from Northern Nevada Railroad. Restored to service 1997, fourth dining car released by the shops. Car featured a flexible interior and could be set up either as a traditional dining car or as a chair-only seminar/meeting room, with seating for up to 70 passengers. Car was part of the regular Shasta Sunset Dinner Train set. Sold 6/2012 to St. Maries River Railroad, St. Maries, Idaho.

MCR #2801 at Signal Butte in June 2008, showing the flood lights each of the dining cars carried to light up the tracks for the patrons after dark.


2819- named Siskiyou. Built 1925 by Pullman, Lot #4858, as IC #2277. Originally configured as an 88-seat coach, the 40-seat chair car #2703, and finally modernized 60-seat coach #2901. Acquired 7/19/1995 by McCloud Railway at auction. Restored to service 1996, second car released by the shops. Seating for up to 70 people, including a 10-person private dining room. Car was part of the regular Shasta Sunset Dinner Train set. Sold 12/2012 to St. Maries River Railroad, St. Maries, Idaho.

MCR #2819 in March 2011.


2838- named Shasta. Built 1929 by American Car & Foundry, Lot #884, as IC #2290. Originally configured as an 88-seat coach, then 40-seat chair car #2709, and finally modernized 64-seat chair car #2838. Rebuilt at two unknown dates. Acquired 7/19/1995 by McCloud Railway at auction. Restored to service 1996, first car released by the shops. Seating for up to 60 people; also has a small kitchen area. Car was part of the regular Shasta Sunset Dinner Train set. Sold 12/2012 to St. Maries River Railroad, St. Maries, Idaho.

MCR #2838 in June 2006.


2840- Not named. Built 1929 by American Car & Foundry, Lot #884, as IC 2289. Originally configured as an 88-seat coach, then 40-seat chair car #2708, then modernized 64-seat chair car #2840. Rebuilt at two unknown dates. Purchased 1998 by McCloud Railway. Interior of car restored and set up as a dance car in time for the 2007 New Year's Eve party train, but exterior of car remains mostly unrestored. Passenger car trucks swapped for freight car trucks in late 2012, likely so truck parts could be salvaged for reuse in other equipment. Stored in McCloud in 2020.

MCR #2840 in May 2007. All seven of the heavyweights wore some variation of this scheme upon arrival in McCloud.


2900- named Lassen. Built 1929 by American Car & Foundry, Lot #884, as IC 2295. Originally configured as an 88-seat coach, then 40-seat chair car #2714, then modernized 76-seat chair car #2900. Rebuilt in 19?? and 1967. Acquired fall 1996 from Northern Nevada Railroad. Restored to service 1997, third car released by the shops. Seating for up to 40 people and is wheelchair accessible; also has a small kitchen area. Car was part of the regular Shasta Sunset Dinner Train. Sold 6/2012 to St. Maries River Railroad, St. Maries, Idaho.

MCR #2900 in March 2011.


2901- Not named. Built 1925 by Pullman, Lot #4858, as IC #2274. Originally configured as an 88-seat coach, then 40-seat chair car #2701, then modernized 76-seat chair car #2901. Rebuilt 1940 and 1967. Purchased 1998 by McCloud Railway. Restored to service by fall 2002. Car features a dance floor, a state of the art sound system, and a bar area. Car was used on the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train during the winter months. Sold 6/2012 to St. Maries River Railroad, St. Maries, Idaho.

MCR #2901 spotted next to the shop in 2004.


2903- named McCloud. Built 1925 by American Car & Foundry, Lot #9888, as IC #3639. Originally configured as a chair smoking car, renumbered #3503, the 44-seat chair car #2734, and finally modernized 76-seat coach #2903. Rebuilt in 1967 and two earlier unrecorded dates. Purchased 1998 by McCloud Railway. In early 1999, McCloud Railway swapped the original six-axle trucks for freight trucks, then placed the car on a short disconnected track at the depot area, where it served as the ticket booth and gift shop for the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train. Car sold to the owner of the old McCloud hospital next door to the depot and moved onto its grounds in the fall of 2016.

MCR #2903 several years after the dinner train ceased operations.


No Number-Lightweight coach riding on four axle trucks, named Strawberry Valley. Originally built by the Milwaukee Road for their Hiawatha service; to Sperry Rail Ballast Cleaning Inc.; to Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum; to Northern Nevada Railroad, Ely, Nevada; to McCloud Railway late 1996. McCloud shop re-built the car by spring 2000 with wood siding attached to the outside of the shell. Inside of the car features a generator at one end providing house power to the dinner train; the rest of the car included a small gift shop and a large lounge area. Car was part of the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train set and remains stored on the property in 2020.

The Strawberry Valley in March 2009.