<center><h2>FOR SALE</h2></center> McCloud River Railroad Number 18. 2-8-2. Yours for only $450,000. See advertisement on Altamont Press under "Discussion" and a post by LOGGERHOGGER for details concerning boiler pressure, driver diameter, etc. No kidding. Sure glad I got to attend a photographer's special there a couple of years ago.
That's not a bad price, but I would be curious to see how much time it has before it needs to be overhauled.
Locomotive was returned to service in February 2001. It's FRA Certification/Form 4 is good through 2016. 'Tis a shame to see this locomotive leave home again... JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
I would expect someone to snatch it up rather quickly, considering steam excursions are in fairly high demand.
Someone should sell Jeff Forbis and keep the 18. But how much can you get for robber barons these days? Shannon WP LIVES (and so does he ATSF)
Is there any potential place in the region that could have interest? At least I'd hope it could stay on the west coast... Boxcab E50
So far two operations have expressed an interest in the locomotive, Ohio Central and Canyon City & Royal Gorge. Can't think of too many other railroads in the region that need a steam locomotive that bad. The entire McCloud Railway/Shasta Sunset Dinner Train operation is currently for sale. There is a good chance that the operation may be closed down and liquidated in the near future if a buyer is not found. JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
JDLX- That's sad news. If a potential buyer were found, what would they hope for as revenue? Is there any hope of developing someone/something along the line, to ship or receive enough commodities to keep the company going? Boxcab e50
The McCloud has always been dependent on the forest industry. They currently have only one sawmill left on line, the huge Sierra Pacific Industries plant at Burney, CA. Fortunately for the railroad, it is a good customer, loading out 15 to 25 centerbeams of lumber per week, plus woodchips when and if UP delivers empty chip racks to the McCloud (which is not always a sure thing). Besides the sawmill the only other shipper of any type is Dicalite Corp., which loads around 5-6 cars a week of diatomaceous earth at Cayton siding. However, these two shippers combined provide the railroad with only about 1500 carloads a year of freight...that is not much business for a 98-mile long railroad. We figure that the freight business grosses maybe a million bucks a year, and once you start taking out wages, fuel, insurance, taxes, track maintenance, insurance, etc., basically all of that money disappears very quickly. The freight operation has been a break even proposition at best since 1998. As for potential freight there is not much. Sierra Pacific Industries is able to survive only because they have enough private land timber to cut, plus the shear size of the company gives them a real competative advantage when it comes to getting the few US Forest Service timber sales that become available. There is a large Nestle water bottling facility that will be locating in McCloud at the site of the old McCloud River Lumber Company sawmill (last operated by California Cedar Products, who closed it at the end of August 2003), but they are going to be served almost exclusively by trucks and may not use the railroad much if at all. The area is gifted with a lot of natural resources, but the existing freight business basically saps all that is available, and the political climate in California does not favor a lot of commercial use of natural resources. There are a lot of volcanic cinders about, but so far no one has been able to figure out how to successfully mine and ship it in sufficient quantities to warrant rail service. There is a slight possibility for manufacturing and other types of traffic, but the rural nature and remote location of the area served by the railroad tend to work against that. There is a reload center in McCloud that sits vacant...the last major use for it was a paper mill near Eureka, CA that shipped out paper from the facility, but it did not last. There is some seasonal agricutural traffic that the railroad handled in the past, but the rates established that discriminate against anyone who ships anything less than a unit train has essentially driven all of that business off as well. Unless you find someone who is wealthy enough to pay cash for the property, any buyout is likely to be highly leveraged, which will mean that a new owner would be making large payments and would have that much less money available to sink into the property. The track structure and equipment are getting old and very tired, and the railroad will need a major infusion of cash in the relatively near future in order to remain afloat...I doubt that even with the dinner train business taken into consideration that there is enough money in the operation to justify that kind of expense. I think that if somebody buys it, it will have to be for love with no real expectation of making any sort of a real return on investment. JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
One resource that I forgot about that might help the railroad...it does have a large and very well equiped shop that has done a lot of outside contracted repair work in the past. At one point not too long ago the outside work done by the shop generated around $30,000 a month in revenues. The current management has focused it's efforts elsewhere recently, and very little outside business is handled any more. This is one area of the business that a new owner could try to rebuild and make something of. JDLX Elko, NV
Update- Canyon City & Royal Gorge has made an offer for the #18. They will be in McCloud this coming weekend to inspect the machine. If they like what they see, then it's probably off to Colorado for the #18. JDLX Elko, NV http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails
What amount of revenue is generated by their 'Dinner Train' excurions. They are packed. By the way, their Beef Wellington was supurb.
