McCloud River Railroad Company
McCloud Railway Company
Locomotive 2nd #36

EMD SD-38
Built- 1969
c/n- 34880
Horsepower- 2000


The railroad started seriously studying replacing the Baldwins as the end of the 1960s approached. Consultations with the connecting roads, especially Southern Pacific, and others in the industry prompted McCloud to open discussions with the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, or EMD for short. EMD and others suggested the model SD38, which developed 2,000 horsepower from EMD's model 645 non-turbocharged equipped prime mover. The SD38 was best suited to slow speed operations where tractive effort was more important than horespower and speed, which fit McCloud's needs almost perfectly. Weight concerns over the many stretches of lite weight rail still on the road caused EMD to build the three with tiny switcher tanks of about 1,200 gallon capacity, which the railroad replaced in the late 1970s and early 1980s with larger 3,200 gallon tanks in order to make them more attractive in the leasing markets. The railroad also experienced many initial problems with the units spreading gauge and rolling rails on parts of the line, especially the former logging railroad trackage between Bear Flat and Ditch Creek on the Burney line, but accelerated track maintenance and some other actions solved those problems.

Builder's photo of the #36. Travis Berryman collection.

The #36 has only been on the property a few months in this photo by Alan Miller dated 10 September 1969.

#36 parked in front of the shop. George Landrock collection.

#36 underneath the sand tower. Dennis Sullivan collection.

#36 in front of the McCloud shops preparing for a day's work. Photo by and courtesy of George Landrock.

A fine portrait of the #36 outside the shop. Lee F. Hower.

#36 switching in the Mt. Shasta City yards while an SP freight races by northward towards Oregon. Photo is dated August 1981 and is by and courtesy of Keith Ardinger.

The #36 leading a train north from Burney at the Cayton Creek bridge. Lee F. Hower.

Notice the masking tape on the ground around the locomotive...the #36 has just been re-painted into the brown and orange paint scheme adopted by the railroad in 1982. Locomotives #36, #37, and #38 all received this new paint scheme, while #39 retained the orange and white applied to all four locomotives by General Motors prior to delivery to the McCloud. Photo by Jimmy Bryant, courtesy Nevada Historical Society.

In the early-1980s the railroad decided to honor long-time superintendent Sidney Muma by naming the #36 after him. Sid and his wife Helen are seen here in front of the locomotive during the dedication ceremony. Photo from the Travis Berryman collection.

The #36 in McCloud on 2 May 1983. Keith E. Ardinger photo.

The #36 switching former City of Prineville boxcars in 1985.

McCloud River leased the #36 and #37 to Union Pacific in February 1988. UP stenciled their initials on both ends of the units and assigned them mostly out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The #36 is seen here in Salt Lake City on 15 July 1988. G. Pekkanen photo.

Several years in the harsh Utah sun plus a mild acid then used in UP's wash racks beat up the paint on the #36 and #37. The patch McCloud applied over that after the lease really stands out. Jerry Lamper photo.

The #36 in McCloud Railway's silver and red scheme crossing Black Ranch Road in the fall of 2002. The locomotive received the nose damage a few years before this photo when it crashed into a large tree that had fallen across high snowbanks on Dead Horse Summit.

The #36 in October 2016.