McCloud
Railway - (en)
The McCloud Railway (AAR reporting marks MCR) is a Class III shortline
operating near Mount Shasta, California. It began operations on July
1, 1992 when it took over operations from the McCloud River Railroad.
The MCR was incorporated on April 21, 1992.
The MCR provides both freight service as well as passenger excursion
trains like the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train.
Freight traffic consists of outbound lumber and forest products as
well as diatomaceous earth (filtering). Approximately 3,000 carloads
of freight (1996 estimate) are handled annually.
The MCR interchanges with the Union Pacific (formerly known as the
Southern Pacific) at Mount Shasta, California.
On June 27, 2005 the MCR applied with the Surface Transportation Board
to abandon most of its line. The proposal requests to abandon all MCR
track 3.3 miles east of McCloud, California.
Route
The railroad operates on 95.5 miles of track. The principal line runs
from Mt. Shasta to Bartle. At Bartle, the Burney Branch heads south.
The Burney Branch was completed in 1955.
The MCR also has a 19 mile branch running from Bartle to Hambone,
California. At Hambone the ownership changed to BNSF Railway (Great
Northern) but was operated by the McCloud River Railroad. That line
extended to Lookout Junction where it connected with the Great
Northern Railway (US) mainline just north of Bieber, California. The
BNSF track east of Hambone (Hambone-Lookout) was abandoned and removed
by A&K Railroad Materials in October 2005.
History
The MCR was originally built by the McCloud River Railroad. The
McCloud River Railroad was chartered on January 22, 1897. By 1901 the
line was running on 17.8 miles of track between Mount Shasta and
McCloud, California.
The railroad was primarily a logging railroad and thus had several
different owners over the years including: U.S. Plywood Corporation
(1963), U.S. Plywood-Champion Papers (1969), and Champion
International (1972), Itel Corporation (1977). The railroad was sold
to the current owner, Jeff E. and Verline Forbis (4-Rails, Inc.) on
July 1, 1992.
The McCloud also had regular passenger service up until 1952.
