McCloud River Railroad Company
McCloud Railway Company
Locomotive #25

Alco 2-6-2
Built- 9/1925
c/n- 66435
Drivers- 46"
Cylinders- 19x24
Weight- 144,000 lbs.
Boiler pressure- 185 lbs.
Tractive effort- 28,800 lbs.
The #25 is by far the most well known and heavily photographed locomotive McCloud ever owned. The large Prairie put thirty years of service mostly on the logging end of the operations before the railroad placed it on the point of the 1955 Gold Spike Excursion marking completing the Burney extension. The #25 became especially well known in the railfan community in a sporadic career hauling passenger excursions that lasted from 1962-1975, 1982-1986, 1997-2001, and then a few trips in 2008. This popular locomotive lives on today, hauling tourists on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad out of Garibaldi, Oregon.
The nine-year old #25 shows all the hallmarks of woods service in this 1934 portrait in the White Horse country. The fire pump, rerailing frogs, shovels, the box of firefighting tools on the tender, and other equipment all speak to the hard and varied life of a logging locomotive. Roland Edwards photo, courtesy Marilyn Rountree.
The #25 on the ready line in McCloud. T.E. Glover collection.
The #25 taking on water in White Horse after the extra fuel tank had been installed.
Doug Richter shot this fine portrait of the #25 in the McCloud yard on 12 September 1945.
Another shot of the #25 in McCloud. Note the two hose reels have been mounted on the back of the tender. Jerry Lamper collection.
The #25 crossing the trestle over Highway 89 a few miles south of Pondosa. Jerry Lamper collection.
The #25 handled its first railfan excursion in 1953, a "Pondosa Logger" that hauled three cabooses full of riders from McCloud to Pondosa and back. The train took several empty boxcars for the Cheney mill out and brought a half dozen log loads back. This first excursion is seen here at Bartle in an image credited to Givens.
In 1955 the railroad plucked the #25 out of the woods and gave it this special paint job in honor of completing the Burney line. The #25 led the Golden Spike excursion from McCloud to Burney and back.
The lumber company put the #25 right back to work out of Pondosa, where it's seen here taking on water, after the Gold Spike celebrations. It must have been quite a site to see it leading a log train through the woods. Dennis Sullivan collection.
The #25 as it became best known to the railfan community, specifically in powering an excursion train at Bartle. The first excursion period lasted from 1962 until 1975.
The #25 being fueled from a tank car the railroad spotted in the yard for this purpose. C.G. Heimerdinger photo, Jeff Moore collection.
Another excursion powered by the #25, this one near Cayton.
The herald on the tender and the lack of the hose reels mark this photo as being taken after its rebuild in 1971-1972. Lee F. Hower photo.
Passenger excursions with the #25 resumed in a partnership with the Great Western Railway Museum between 1982 and 1986. The #25 is seen here on 8 May 1982. David B. Martin photo.
The McCloud Railway Company ended another long drought of no steam on the road when it brought the #25 back again in 1997. It's seen here with a chartered photo freight at the Bartle Wye around 1998. Alicia Moore photo.
The #25 powering what is likely to be the last steam excursion ever to run on the McCloud in November 2008. Roger Titus photo.
#25 on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad in June 2012. Photo by Jeff Moore