McCloud River Railroad
Equipment Roster
Leased and Stored Passenger Equipment
One coach and one coach body existed at Hambone during the 1930s and 1940s, including a former Southern Pacific coach used by the Siskiyou County School System and a combination car body brought in by the Great Northern for use as a tool and motor car shed. The coach-turned-school served until a more permanent structure could be built, while the remains of the combination car remained in evidence until burned in the 1970s.

The advent of the railfan excursions in the 1950s and 1960s prompted the railroad to lease passenger equipment. Surviving records include SP coach #1136, leased 11/1/1950 - 6/16/1951 for $11.51 per day, and Western Pacific observation-lounge car #653, leased July-September 1964 for a grand total of $100. Photo records also show the railroad leased SP #2301 in the early 1960s. The railroad also hosted a good deal of passenger equipment owned by various organizations that sponsored trips over the road, including a two unit articulated streamlined coach possibly owned by the Pacific Locomotive Association and observation car #2901, sold 11/1967 by the Central Coast Railroad Club to a Doug Moran specifically for use on McCloud trips.

The railroad leased a variety of equipment during the revival of the excursion program in the early- to mid-1980s, mostly Southern Pacific gondolas and flat cars set up with temporary benches and railings and at least three ex-Southern Pacific "Daylight" coaches owned by Great Western Tours, specifically #500, named San Joaquin; #510, named Tuolumne; and #511, named Stanislaus. Great Western Railway Museum provided one flatcar, an ex-Trailer Train 50-foot flat equipped with benches and railings, that saw use on at least a few McCloud excursions in the middle 1980s. The museum leased the car to the Yreka Western by 1987, and it operates today on the City of Prineville Railroad.

The Great Western Railway Museum moved a number of passenger cars onto the property in the middle 1980s, including the following cars: Burlington Northern baggage car #976176 (former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy); Great Northern baggage car #3396, painted in BN maintenance-of-way colors; Union Pacific coach #578; two ex-Burlington Northern coaches, #968054 and one other; and two ex-Spokane, Portland & Seattle heavyweight cars, a Railway Post Office car and baggage car #46. One of the BN baggage cars and the UP coach brought to the McCloud yard in the fall of 2012; the passenger car trucks under the baggage car were swapped out for freight trucks, probably so parts could be salvaged from the passenger car trucks to get other passenger equipment ready to move.
WP observation car #653 bringing up the rear of an excursion train in the Mt. Shasta yards on 5 September 1964. The railroad reportedly turned down an offer to buy this car at a fire sale price.
The two unit articulated former SP coach behind the depot in January 1969. Lee F. Hower photograph.
Great Western Railway Museum's former Trailer-Train flatcar converted to passenger service in McCloud in1985. Pat Driscoll photo, Jeff Moore collection.
Most of Great Western Railway Museum's passenger cars brought into McCloud are lined up underneath the boom of the lumber company;s Crane #8 at Ash Creek Junction in the middle 1980s. Jerry Lamper photo.