McCloud River Railroad- Passenger Operations: Excursions Photos: #25 Returns- 8 May 1982

McCloud River Railroad : Passenger Operations: Excursion Photos

#25 Returns
8 May 1982

Six years were to pass between the final diesel trips in 1976 and the next time a passenger train would grace the McCloud River Railroad. Itel Rail had purchased the railroad back in early 1977, and in early 1981 they hired Bill Herndon as the railroad's new president. One of the first instructions Itel gave Bill was to sell or scrap the #25 as soon as possible. Bill recognized what the #25 represented to the community, and he balked at the order and eventually got Itel to consent to instead place the locomotive on public display in McCloud.

Two events in the winter of 1981-1982 gave the #25 a new lease on life. Fred Kepner and his Great Western Railroad Museum had been trying to purchase the #25 for years with no success, and after hearing the news of the pending display Fred again approached the railroad, but this time with a proposal to lease and operate the locomotive. Itel consented to this arrangement. The second event was Bill approving a plan advanced by his daughter, who was the class president of the 1982 graduating class from Mt. Shasta High School, to operate a couple excursions on the railroad as a fundraiser for their planned class trip to Disneyland. Somewhere during the winter Bill and others connected the two events, and Fred accelerated his work on the #25 so as to make it ready for the event.

The involved parties had already fixed the date for the excursion as Saturday, 8 May 1982. The announced return of the #25 sparked a huge demand for tickets, which caused the railroad to add a second trip that day. The railroad had since disposed of its coaches and converted the passenger flats back to work service, and to handle passengers for this trip the company leased four gondolas from the SP. The freshly painted #38 and the VIP caboose reounded out the excursion train. Retired engineer Ray Piltz came out of retirement to run the locomotive. The day was an enormous success to all involved parties, with the only slight problem coming when the first trip arrived in Mt. Shasta City. The city held a parade to mark the event, and it and the train were supposed to arrive and the same point simultaneously, but the #25 set a tie on fire as it entered the yard. The train paused for a few minutes to extinguish the flames, and as a result the parade and the train missed each other.