McCloud River Railroad
Remembering Matt Simons

Matt Simons, a good friend and contributor to this site, passed away during the first week of June.


Matt Simons hostling the former McCloud River #18 in Virginia City, Nevada, in September 2023. Jeff Moore photo.

Matt was born into a long-time McCloud family and, like many before him, went to work for one of the local companies, in his case the McCloud Railway Company. Matt spent several years of his early adult life working for the railroad in whatever role they required. One of stories he told from his time on the railroad involved a work train dumping ballast on the climb out of Lake Britton following the installation of the fiber optic line along that part of the railroad, the ballast had been dumped but for some reason had not been spread, the crews on site eventually decided to place a tie across the front pilot of one of the locomotives and have a crew member ride on top of the tie to hold it down while the train slowly pushed the tie in front of it to spread the ballast, and Matt drew the short straw. He would often tell this story as an ice breaker or introduction in meetings as the time he "surfed" on the front of a train.

Matt's professional life took him into public service, where his knowledge, ability to recall specific regulatory wording, and innovative problem solving abilities made him widely respected in his chosen field. He found ways to continue remaining in touch with his railroad passions. Matt was able to work his way into a regular weekend fireman job on the Virginia &1mp; Truckee Railroad in western Nevada, mostly on the left hand seat of the former McCloud River #18 on the weekend excursions from Eastgate to Virginia City. In addition, Matt also got active in rail motocar groups, and regularly participated in motorcar runs around the western United States. Matt also got into modeling and started a long term project to build as accurately as he could models of various McCloud River steam locomotives. Matt spent countless hours working with drafting programs to create various steam locomotive parts, which he then would have 3D printed in brass. He was also an avid hunter, outdoorsman, and a great friend.

Matt was a long time friend and contributor to this website. He will be deeply missed by all who knew him through all the various aspects of his life. Rest in peace, my friend.


Matt at Eastgate Siding in the fall of 2022.


Taking water at Eastgate Siding in the fall of 2022.


A tray full of HO scale McCloud River steam locomotive parts Matt had printed based off of his drafting work.