McCloud River Railroad : Passenger Operations: Excursion Photos

Steam Locomotive #18:
January 2005
In late summer 2004, the McCloud Railway Company announced that the #18 was for sale, with an asking price of $350,000. The Fall Foliage round trips to Burney scheduled for October 10 and 17, 2004, were advertised as being the possible last use of steam on the railroad. However, in late fall the Pacific Locomotive Association announced one more trip, to be run on Sunday, 16 January 2005.

The Pacific Locomotive Association is an old friend of the McCloud, as it has sponsored various trips over the road since the 1960's. The operational plan originally called for the #18 to take a mixed train (freight and passenger cars) from McCloud to Bartle, where the freight cars would be set out and a snowplow would be picked up. The #18 would then start out on the moribund line to Hambone, with the excursion seeing how far it could get up that line.

A series of powerfull storms dumped five feet of snow in McCloud in the week before the excursion. Martin Hansen chartered a photo freight that ran from McCloud to Mt. Shasta City on Saturday, 15 January. The freight consisted of tank cars 1711, 1715 and 1716, two ballast hoppers, and cabooses #553 and #102. The following day dawned bright and clear, and the #18 took the box plow/flanger,two passenger cars and the double deck passenger flat to Bartle. After the crew and some volunteers dug out the switch to the Hambone line at the Bartle wye the #18 and the plow put on quite a show clearing about the first 200 feet of that line of snow. Some snow was then knocked down onto the tracks on the Burney leg of the wye, and the #18 and the plow then cleared that out of the way. Once the snowplow demonstration was done the excursion continued another half mile or so down the Burney line before backing up to the Bartle tank, where the plow was dropped in the Bartle siding and a couple photo run-bys were made. Low fuel level in the #18 scrubbed plans for more photo runs, and once everyone was re-boarded the #18 shoved the passenger train 18 miles back to McCloud, and the day came to an end.

All photos on this page were taken by Drew Jacksich and are used with permission.

The #18 pulling away from the McCloud depot.

The excursion not far east of McCloud.

Rolling along near Esperanza.

Arriving at Bartle.

Engineer Malen Johnson at Bartle.

The excursion at the Bartle tank.

With the passenger equipment cut off and the photographers in place, the #18 and the snowplow go to work.

When plowing snow with a push plow, common practice is to push the snow with the plow until the locomotive stalls out. The locomotive and plow then back up a short distance before making a run at the snowbank. The resulting impact can be spectacular.

Another shot of the #18 and plow hitting a snowbank at speed.