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McCloud River Railroad Scrapping Snowplow #1701 |
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Railroad Park Resort on 1 October 2024 posted to their facebook page they had made the difficult decision to demolish the giant bucker plow that had welcomed visitors to their grounds for decades. The plow had a long and interesting history, having been originally built by or for the Central Pacific Railroad sometime in the later 1800s. The McCloud River Railroad bought the plow around 1902, it carried #700 on the McCloud roster until renumbered to #1701 around late 1906 or early 1907. McCloud rebuilt the plow several times, including a capital rebuild establishing a new depreciation schedule completed in 1911 and then a second rebuild to widen the width of the plow in 1932. McCloud River retired the plow in 1964 and donated it to the then proposed railroad museum south of Dunsmuir that became the Railroad Park Resort. The plow had been becoming increasingly decrepit in recent years, and the resort concluded it posed an immediate health and safety hazard. The Resort is planning to salvage the metal pieces and a few other parts and donate them to local museums. |
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The #1701 being used to open the railroad after four feet of snow fell on the line in Febrary 1909. Jeff Moore collection.
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The #1701 as it appeared in March 2011. Jeff Moore photo.
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The resort started demolishing the plow shortly after the 1 October announcement, and by the morning of 8 October the plow body had been reduced to a pile of wood. Philip Schmierer visited the park on the morning
of Wednesday, 9 October, and found much of the wood had been placed in a dumpster. Philip sent along the following photos of the plow's remains.
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