McCloud River Railroad
Equipment Roster
Snowplows

McCloud snow removal equipment in the McCloud yards. T.E. Glover collection.

Snow is an annual event in the country the McCloud railroads served. The railroad chose to shut down rather than plow snow through the first several winters, but by about 1902 the company could no longer afford to do so.

Snow removal equipment employed by the McCloud companies included bucker plows, flangers, Jordan spreaders, and rotary snowplows. The bucker plow is a strongly built wedge plow forced through snow accumulations; it can either be a plow affixed to the front of a locomotive or part of a separate car. The flanger will drop plow blades down between the rails to remove snow, which if left unplowed can compact into ice that derails trains. The flanger blades had to be raised and lowered to clear switches, grade crossings, and other objects between the rails, and as built the flanger blades had to be raised and lowered by hand. The cars included a doghouse where the blade operator rode. In later years, hydraulic controls replaced the operator. The Jordan spreader featured a large wedge plow with flanger attachments and wings used to push snow away from the edge of the tracks; the wings could also be used to push dirt away from the tracks and create drainage ditches. The rotary snowplow consists of a large ciculating blade that chews through drifts, blowing the snow up to 200 feet away from the tracks. The railroad owned no rotary plows, but leased from the Southern Pacific on an as-needed basis.

Underlined numbers are clickable links to a photo page of that car.

700- Wooden bucker plow, purchased circa 1902 from Southern Pacific. Re-numbered late 1906/early 1907 to #1701.

701- Flanger, purchased or built circa 1902. Re-numbered late 1906/early 1907 to #1703.

1701- Wooden bucker plow, re-numbered late 1906/early 1907 from #700. Rebuilt in 1911 with a new depreciation schedule. Cost $1000 ($520.64 labor, $479.36 materials). Rebuilt/widened 9/30/32 to provide greater clearance. Donated 1964 to proposed railroad museum to be located near Dunsmuir, CA. Collection later incorporated into the Railroad Park Resort. Plow is on display on the resort grounds in 2020.

1703- Flanger, re-numbered late 1906/early 1907 from #701. Roster books show this flanger retired in 1909, with a new flanger of the same number built in the company shops that same year; it is likely that this was a capital rebuild of the car. Cost $700. Scrapped circa 1964.

1751:2- Bucker/flanger, built 11/1939 in the company shops. Length 26 feet. Cost $2,304.66. Consisted of a flanger blade enclosed inside a double ended box plow body and a doghouse to protect the flanger blade operator. Box plow much larger than the earlier examples detailed below. Sold 1992 to McCloud Railway. McCloud Railway re-built the plow with hydraulic controls, allowing for the elimination of the doghouse, in the summer of 1993. Plow renumbered to #1937 during rebuild.

1753:2- Bucker/flanger, built 11/1939 in the company shops. Cost $2304.65. Same description as #1751. McCloud River re-built the plow with hydraulic controls, eliminating the doghouse, circa 1986. Sold 1992 to McCloud Railway. Plow wrecked near Milepost B-38 in the winter of 1992/1993, where it remains in 2020.

1767- Bucker plow, built in the company shops. Work order issued 7/12/1913, plow completed 3/1914. Cost $2,028.06 ($1,041.82 labor, $150 trucks, $12.95 Simplex coupler, $124.94 steel and iron, $58.11 hardware, $5.38 paint, $11.19 drawhead castings, $7.36 plow shoes, $417.62 lumber, $42.42 body bolsters, $62.50 wheels and axles, $69.45 miscellaneous and coal, and $24.34 store expenses). Rebuilt/widened 9/30/1932 to provide greater clearance, aggregate cost of $689.31 to complete this work on #1701 and #1767. Plow survived on railroad until damaged during the winter of 1968/1969. Retired 1970 and stored on the railroad until deeded 5/1988 to Great Western Railway Museum as part of a lawsuit settlement. Museum sold the plow in late 2005/early 2006 to the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, but plow remains in McCloud. Entire rear of the plow fell off during the winter of 2006/2007, with the platform and doghouse starting to collapse inward into the body.

1773- Flanger, built 2/1923 in the company shops. Cost $1711.27. Donated in 1964 to proposed railroad museum to be located near Dunsmuir, CA. Collection later incorporated into the Railroad Park Resort. Plow is on display in rapidly deteriorating condition on the resort grounds in 2020.

1775- Built 12/1925 in the company shops as a double ended snowplow. Cost $1,803.02. Converted 9/1929 to a bucker/flanger, cost $908.39. Plow assigned to Pondosa for most of its life. Likely scrapped circa 1964.

1783- Bucker/flanger, built 12/1928 in the company shops. Same description as #1775. Cost $1,769.57. Primarily assigned to White Horse. Destroyed circa 1964 in Burney yard by a fire set by bored teenagers.

1787- Bucker/flanger, built 1/31/1930 in the company shops. Same description as #1775. Cost $1,872.80. One end had an extension added that raised the height of the plow. Donated in 1964 to proposed railroad museum to be located near Dunsmuir, CA. Collection later incorporated into the Railroad Park Resort. Shortly after the resort opened a flash flood destroyed this plow. The frame reportedly serves as part of the foundation of the kitchen area in the resort's restaurant.

1850- Jordan spreader, model 2-2000, serial number 1129. Purchased new 12/1952. Cost $36,939.06. Sold 1992 to McCloud Railway. Stored in McCloud in 2020.

1937- Bucker/flanger, rebuilt 1993 from #1751:2. Derailed in early 2012 at Signal Butte near end of switchback tail track, where it remains in 2020.

????- Jordan spreader, former Southern Pacific, conveyed from the Union Pacific to the McCloud Railway in late 2004/early 2005. Spreader has been stored at Ash Creek Junction and then McCloud since arriving on the railroad.

Photographs of the leased Southern Pacific rotary snowplows can be found on the Rotary Snowplows page in the Miscellaneous section of this website.