McCloud Last Steam Run

Here is a photo taken by Martin E. Hansen, and published with his permission. Taken this past weekend on the McCloud, with No. 18 putting on a show as only steam can in winter. As you can see, there is just a little snow on the ground. 18 pushed McCloud's plow to clear the wye at Bartle. This shot is passing the water tower at Bartle. Nice job, Martin.

 

Nice photo, fitz. Please pass our compliments on to Martin.

Boxcab- this was a revenue run, actually a charter by the Pacific Locomotive Association. Martin ran one of his charters the day before over to Mt. Shasta City with the plow, the #18, three tank cars, two ballast hoppers, and two cabooses.

As for the steam program, it is history. Or will become history in the near future. Jeff Forbis (owner of the railroad) told his staff this past weekend that the #18 has been sold to a buyer somewhere in the Carson City, NV area. David Epling called both the V&T Reconstruction Committee and the Nevada State Railroad Museum, and neither of them are the buyer (or at least are identifying themselves as the buyer), so unless a private collector is involved the only other possibility is Robert Gray's V&T operation up at Virginia City. However, in later conversations with some visiting railfans Jeff told them that the locomotive was LIKELY to go to Carson City, but that no deals had been finalized yet, and there was a good chance that it might go to the Canyon City & Royal Gorge instead. So we will have to wait to see what happens.

Mike Pechner is reporting over on Altamont Press that he had a conversation with Jeff this past weekend as well, and Jeff told him that freight operations on the McCloud are losing money and are likely to end by this coming August unless a buyer is found for the railroad. Mike also reports that the #25 is now owned by the city of McCloud, so at least it should remain in the city, but no information on future operating possibilities. Jeff also told Mike that the dinner train operation is profitable and will remain open for at least two more years...I get the impression that futher operation past that point are dependent upon Jeff finding a buyer.

JDLX
Elko, NV

 

"Please keep us posted on where this beauty will find her new home!"

I will, assuming that I hear anything.

"A couple of questions- If the freight operation is gone, will dinner train revenues be enough to maintain the line?"

Maybe only the McCloud-Mt. Shasta City segment, I don't see it being able to support much more than that, and even that may be iffy. A good portion of the track maintenance budget has gone into this stretch in the past several years, and the tracks on this part of the railroad are in decent shape. With only a single train or two a week, and no heavy freight, the tracks might hold up for a while. However, would just the dinner train be able to justify the cost of major investment when it is needed? It may not.

"And what would it take to make freight operations profitable? Is there something that can come on board, to help boost the bottom line? Would that be a new shipper? Or? As is, I can't how anyone would come forward to buy the line, unless there could be changes forthcoming?"

By all rights and reasons, the McCloud should have been dead in 1978. As late as 1977 the company served a P&M Cedar Products mill in Mt. Shasta City, the big mill in McCloud (then operated by Champion International), a lumber reload operation in McCloud, a stud mill a few miles east of McCloud, the Cheney-Grant sawmill in Pondosa, the Fiberboard/Louisiana Pacific mill at Lorenz a few miles northeast of Burney, and the Publishers Mill west of Burney. Those were just the primary shippers, there were some other minor ones (a mom 'n pop diatomaceous earth mining company that shipped a few carloads from Arkrite, Pacific Gas & Electric used the railroad on a fairly consistent basis for projects, etc.). By the end of 1979 the ONLY shipper left out of this list was the mill at Lorenz, as all of the other shippers shut down. The only reason the railroad survived in that period was that it was owned by a big company with very deep pockets (Itel Rail) that was willing to keep the railroad going.

The situation did improve a little bit around 1980 when Sierra Pacific purchased and re-opened the Publishers mill. Since that time Sierra Pacific has been the only large shipper on the road. The Lorenz mill closed down around 1989. The railroad did move in a substantial amount of paper from 1988 to 1997, and this traffic sometimes amounted to 40-50 carloads a week, sometimes more. It was good when it lasted. This was paper moving from paper mills in the upper midwest that was bound for printers in Stead, Nevada (just north of Reno). The printers were getting piss poor rail service directly into Reno, and the McCloud stepped in with a solution that brought the railroad back to some form of health. BNSF brought the cars to Lookout, and they were taken to McCloud to a warehouse facility, where the paper was stored until needed by the printer, at which time it was loaded onto a truck for the short drive down to Reno. This worked well up until the time that BNSF received trackage rights directly into Reno as a result of the UP-SP merger, and the paper traffic was quickly diverted away from the McCloud.

There have been only two sources of freight revenue that have developed in the past 20 years that were not directly related to the forest products industry in one form or another. The first was Dicalite Corp., which ships four or five loads of diatomaceous earth from Cayton each week. As things stand now Dicalite is the only shipper remaining on the railroad besides Sierra Pacific. The other sources was sugar beets, which were loaded (during the harvest season only) for a few years in the mid-1990's. However, the beets vanished as quickly as they came.

What the railroad could really use (and what may be the only thing to save it) would be either a new shipper or a massive increase of carloadings from the two shippers that remain. What would be the chances of that happening? Good question. Dicalite used to ship both bagged and bulk products from their reload (bagged product in boxcars, bulk in covered hoppers). All bagged product is now trucked out in containers...there has been some talk of moving the containers out by rail, but nothing concrete has emerged. Shipments out of Sierra Pacific vary widely, depending on the volatile lumber market. I have seen shipments from SPI vary from four or five cars a week all the way up to a dozen cars a day. The railroad gets a decent amount of revenue from lumber traffic and essentially nothing for woodchips.

The high water mark for freight operations on the railroad came around 1997...at the time the company was moving inbound paper in from Lookout and was shipping a lot of lumber and woodchips as well as some diatomaceous earth, plus the sugar beets. Carloadings were approximately double what they had been when the McCloud Railway took over in mid-1992. Today carloadings are back down to the 1992 level. Perhaps another measure of the railroad's success has been employment...when the railroad started up in 1992 there were 18 people on the payroll (2 running the trains, 5 in administration, 5 in the shop, and 6 on the section gang). By 1997 this number had grown to 25- 6 in the shop, 5 in administration, 4 in transportation, and 10 on the section gang. Today the railroad employs around 10-12 people, on the train crew, 4 on the section, 3 or 4 in the shop, and 2 or 3 in administration.

Any new sources of revenue would almost have to come from the palnt or mineral wealth of northeastern California. I do not see any chance of any more sawmills being built in the area. Better car supply and better service from UP might coax some more traffic out of the sawmill, but that would require a level of cooperation from UP that just simply is not there. There is still a nice big reload building sitting in McCloud that might be used for something, but so far nothing has stuck. Dicalite leased the buildings for a few months to store bags of product, but none of it came in or out by rail. A paper mill in Eureka, CA shipped some carloads of paper outbound from the reload, but was not able to make it work. There just simply aren't too many potential sources of revenue up in that country that the railroad could depend on.

One of the biggest problems facing any potential buyer of the company is the run-down condition that the property is falling into. A lot of ties are failing fast, a lot of places need new ballast, a lot of the rail needs to be replaced (those big six-axle diesels are very hard on curves), there are some developing washouts, etc. The diesels are getting tired, and the shop crew has been having a very difficult time keeping two of the three operating at any one time. Basically put, the company will need some major investment in the very near future to keep ahead of deferred maintenance, and unless some sort of new revenue sources are developed the return on investment may not warrant that kind of capital expenditures.

Sorry this went a little long.

JDLX
Elko, NV
http://www.trainweb.org/mccloudrails

 

Wow JDLX, what a wealth of info for me, Thanks. Just got back into Model Railroading and would like to model this shortline, but in the 60-80 era. Would like to know of anything else you could tell me about the McCloud River. You can of course email me the stufff if you want at.

car88fan@verizon.net

Bryan

 

McCloudRiver, welcome to Trainboard! Here is one of my favorite shots taken at another Martin Hansen photog special a few years ago. I have a lot of shots from that day. It may not help you model the line, but may help with 18 and old rolling stock.

 

Just found out from the website for the Reconstruction of the Virginia & Truckee that they have obtained the 18. To bad that it will say V&T on the side instead of McCRRR. Don't know if the number will be changed though, I hope they don't.

 

Guess I'll go and see her before she leaves the McCloud Railway. When is the Civil War Reeneactement any way?

 

I've found out that the Re-enactment is still to be announced for 2005. There should be an update on this website sometime soon