Railroad History
The McCloud River Railroad
A Summary Report
For a detailed history of the railroads; The McCloud River Railroads by Jeff Moore, Signature Press, 2016, is recommended.
(The locations described are referenced with milepost numbers. All of the mileposts count outward from mile post 0.00 at McCloud. Mileposts to Mt. Shasta have a M–prefix, mileposts to Hambone have no prefix, mileposts between Bartle Wye and Burney have a B–prefix, mileposts on the Sierra branch have an S–prefix and mileposts on the remains of the Pondosa branch have an P–prefix.)
McCloud to Mt. Shasta City
McCloud @ MP 0.00 is the operational center of the McCloud River Railroad and the McCloud Railway Company. McCloud was established in 1897 as Vandale and was created on the site of Sugar Pine Park, the former sawmill camp of Friday George.
The Siskiyou Lumber & Mercantile Company chose the site for the location of a large sawmill, of the McCloud River Lumber Company, established in early 1896.
The Siskiyou Lumber & Mercantile Company established circa 1890, and owned by Mr. Scott and Mr. Van Arsdale, had established a sawmill and box factory circa 1892 on the Southern Pacific main line at a point then known as "Wrights Spur. The name was changed to Upton (later a part of Mt. Shasta City) by 1895 and a logging railroad was constructed going east toward the future town of McCloud. The McCloud River Railroad line from Upton to McCloud was completed in July 1897 and service began in August 1897.
The railroad eventually built a large yard in McCloud, as well as a roundhouse and complete shop facilities. A second smaller yard, known as ‘the runaround,’ is located approximately 1 mile east of the main McCloud yard. The huge McCloud River Lumber Company sawmill was located adjacent to and to the east of the railroad facilities.
McCloud was a classic lumber company town from 1897 until 1963, when the McCloud River Lumber Company was bought by the U.S. Plywood Company. Known as "Mother McCloud", it was a community where everything was Company; you were born in the Company hospital, raised in a Company house, were educated in the Company school, worked for the Company, shopped at the Company store, and died and were buried in the Company cemetery.
In 1963 U.S. Plywood kept the sawmill and railroad but quickly disposed of the company town. The sawmill stayed open until it closed in 1979 as it was a "Big" log mill and all the "Big" logs were cut. P&M Cedar Products purchased and reopened a portion of the mill complex, primarily to produce cedar pencil stock. The P&M sawmill was closed on May 30, 2003.
Hooper at M.P. M-5 is the location of a water tank for steam locomotives. The platform still stands, but the tank was pulled down in 2002. A spur was established here for the C.A. Hooper Lumber Company in 1897.
Signal Butte at M.P. M-5.1 is the location of one of the last switchbacks left on any railroad in the United States. Designed to avoid expensive construction costs in rough terrain or as a temporary facility to get paying traffic flowing, trains gain elevation by reversing direction here. The switchback tail track is 2,861 feet long.
Pierce at M.P. M-7.2 is at the summit between McCloud and Mt. Shasta City. A siding 1,717 feet long is at this location. Pierce is used to reassemble trains that had to be doubled over the hill (taken in two or more sections) due to excess tonnage or over length for the switchback.
Big Canyon at M.P. M-11 was originally crossed by using another switchback. A large fill was constructed in 1902, eliminating the switchback. The original fill stood until New Year’s Day in 1996, when massive flooding washed out the fill. The fill was later rebuilt.
Howard at M.P. M-12.5 was the home base of a section crew for many years. A large water tank was used to provide water for the steam locomotives. The water tank stood into the 1980s when it was taken down and relocated to McCloud.
Burk at M.P. M-14 was the junction of the original line to Upton which was abandoned when a connection was constructed to Mt. Shasta in 1907. A short spur was left but the station was soon abandoned and the site is difficult to find today.
Mt. Shasta City at M.P. M–16 was reached through a line change in 1907. It replaced Upton as the interchange point between the McCloud River Railroad and the Southern Pacific Railroad.
McCloud to Hambone: Stations in existence at time of Rail Banking.
Dry Creek at M.P. 11 was a 171-foot spur facing to the west. This spur was one of the last remaining remnants of the vast system of logging spurs operated by the McCloud River Lumber Company. The spur ran due south from the railroad, crossed Highway 89 and the McCloud River, and then climbed up to a reload in the hills south of the river. Most of the old grade is easily drivable today. The U.S. Forest Service’s Cattle Camp campground is located immediately adjacent to the old grade and a unit for the campground is located next to the dirt road that formerly was the road grade.
Swobe is located between M.P. 12 and M.P. 13. Swobe is named for Dwight M. Swobe, President of the McCloud River Railroad from 1921 until his death in 1943. The original site of Swobe was bypassed by a line change constructed in 1960.
Kinyon at M.P. 13 was the site of the last permanent logging camp established by the McCloud River Lumber Company. Kinyon was named after Kinyon Young, a logging superintendent with the lumber company. Kinyon was established in 1948 and served as the base for loggers and railroaders working for the lumber company both directions from Kinyon. A small engine house was constructed to house at first the steam locomotives leased from the railroad and then later housed the lumber company’s #1, a General Electric 70-ton, 600-horsepower diesel electric switcher. The last operations out of Kinyon were to the Dry Creek spur, 2 miles west of Kinyon on the McCloud River Railroad mainline. Rotting ties, a few concrete foundations, and the old railcar for transporting loggers to the woods mark the spot today.
Algoma near M.P. 15 was, in the early years, the site of a spur to the Bridgeford – Cunningham sawmill also known as the Algoma Lumber Company, which shipped cut lumber on the McCloud River Railroad. The Algoma mill burned to the ground in 1910.
Bartle, at M.P. 18, is a community that dates to about 1887. The Bartle Brothers established a ranch and hotel at this location, and a post office (Glazier) existed here briefly during the late 1880s. The McCloud River Railroad reached Bartle in 1905, and the community became the railhead for the agricultural areas in the Fall River Valley and Burney area. Bartle became an important junction with lumber company logging lines. The railroad operated a hotel in Bartle for several years as well. The extensive yard facilities, balloon track for turning entire trains and the stock corrals no longer exist. However, the site had the mainline that runs to the east, a 1,328-foot passing siding, a section shed, and a water tank. The line splits approximately 1 mile east of Bartle at the Bartle Wye, with the north line going east to Hambone and Lookout and the south line running to Burney.
McIntosh Vista with a view of Mount Shasta to the west lies at M.P. 23 and was established when the Shasta Sunset dinner train ran out to this point. It was named for the McIntosh family, who bought the Bartle Brothers ranch operation in 1909 and has held it since.
Car "A" at M.P. 26 was the eastern terminus of the railroad for several years. The site was the junction point between the McCloud River Railroad and the many spurs of the lumber company going out to the north and east. Car "A" gained additional importance with the opening of a new main line going south to Pondosa in 1927. In 1951 a new line into Pondosa from Bartle eliminated this junction as logging activities were moving into virgin timber to the southeast of Pondosa.
Hambone is at two mileposts: M.P. 31 and M.P. BH-34, with the BH line being the Great Northern Railway line between Hambone and Lookout Junction on the Great Northern main line. The McCloud River Lumber Company first moved into this area in about 1920 after purchasing a large amount of timber from the Red River Lumber Company and securing a USFS timber sale. Most of the activity was to the north and east of the site of Hambone, and the resulting log lines bypassed this point to the north. The first line into Hambone came from the north, consisting of a branch off of a branch. This changed in 1923 when a new shorter line from Car "A" was built through the area, bypassing the trackage to the north. The original branch line into the camp from the north then became the lumber company’s main spur to the east.
The lumber company had established a logging camp after the arrival of the rails form the north. It was known initially as Camp Two, but was renamed Pondosa around 1925. The lumber company built a yard and a light repair shop at the site. This camp lasted until 1927, when it was moved to the current site of Pondosa and the old site was renamed Hambone. The McCloud River Railroad reached Hambone in about 1930 when it acquired from the lumber company the main spur from Car "A" to this point.
Hambone was selected as a station point because it provided a flat area large enough to construct the switching yards and locomotive servicing facilities that would be necessary to accommodate the interchange of traffic between the Great Northern / Western Pacific Railroads and McCloud River Railroad. In a somewhat convoluted fashion the Lumber Company spur heading east from Hambone was rebuilt by the McCloud River Railroad, then purchased by the Great Northern / Western Pacific and an agreement made for the McCloud River to operate the line. The railroad through Hambone was realigned in 1956, bypassing the site of the old camp. A 1,032-foot passing siding, a shot-up station sign, and a small section shed were all that remained on the current railroad alignment.
Bartle to Burney
Bartle at M.P. 18 is the initial starting point of the Burney branch. The branch actually leaves the McCloud-Hambone line at the Bartle Wye at M.P. 19, 1 mile east of the Bartle station point.
The line from Bartle to Curtis was constructed by the railroad in 1950 as part of the new line into Pondosa; Curtis was at MP B-25. As Curtis was located at Deadhorse Summit on the divide between the McCloud and Pit Rivers the railroad maintained a three-track yard so trains that needed to double or triple the hills in either direction could be reassembled. One of the sidings remained somewhat intact, but the spur was useable only for about the first 100 feet.
Obie at M.P. B-31 was once the site of another three-track yard. Trains coming from Burney had to climb almost 20 miles of continuous 2 to 3 percent grades, and Obie was built at the top of that grade as a place for trains to reassemble if brought up in more than one cut and to handle traffic coming off the Pondosa Branch. One 1,717 foot long passing track remained.
Bear Flat at M.P. B-31.4 was once the site of a wye off of the mainline. The trackage from Curtis to Bear Flat was constructed by the lumber company in 1950 as part of the new line into Pondosa. The railroad had trackage rights to get from Curtis to Bear Flat, and from Bear Flat it was one-half mile to the Pondosa Upper Yard which was a reload point for cut lumber trucked in from mills to the east. Lumber was also brought out from the Chaney Lumber Company, and later Louisiana Pacific sawmill at Pondosa. Bear Flat remained as the junction with the Pondosa branch after log hauling ended, and was used in later years as a storage spur for railcars.
Spur 408 at M.P. B-36 was the remnant of one of the many lumber company log spurs that branched off the lumber company main spur (Spur 400) from Bear Flat to the Clark Creek drainage cutting area. The line from Bear Flat to Ditch Creek (M.P. B-41) was originally built by the lumber company during the 1940s. Operations over this stretch were based out of Pondosa. The destination for this line was in the large timber tracts the company held in the Clark Creek drainage. The last logs hauled by the McCloud River Railroad in early 1964 came off the Ditch Creek spur. A 435-foot remnant of the spur remained. The trackage from Bear Flat to Ditch Creek was purchased by the railroad from the lumber company as part of the building of the of the Burney extension in 1954; the line south of Ditch Creek to Cayton uses portions of the Mt. Shasta Power Corporation / Pacific Gas & Electric Company Railroad and logging spur 700.
Cayton at M.P. B-47 is on the western edge of Cayton Valley and the line from Cayton to Burney is all new construction.
The railroad reached Cayton in August 1954, and a reload area was immediately set up to ship and receive freight from the Burney area. A passing siding nearly 2,500 feet in length was built but was reduced to 1,740 feet in recent years. Cayton gained much significance for the railroad in 1986 when Dicalite Corporation started shipping diatomaceous earth from Cayton. The reload was active up until removal of the rails and produced 5 to 6 cars a week for the railroad.
Lake Britton at M.P. B-SO is located where the railroad crossed both Highway 89 and Lake Britton on two consecutive bridges. A 82-foot spur built for construction of the Lake Britton trestle existed at the site until the mid-1990s.
Arkright at M.P. B-52 was the site of a small mining firm that shipped carloads of diatomaceous earth on the railroad in the 1960s. The siding is gone, and a concrete slab is all that remains of the loading facility.
Lorenz at M.P. B–54 was the site of a 10,000-foot-long spur that ran north from the mainline to the former site of the Lorenz Lumber Company. The Lorenz sawmill was built in 1955, the same year that the railroad reached Burney. A local construction company now owns the site now and did receive occasional carloads of construction materials and supplies.
Berry at M.P. B-58 was the operational center of the Burney area from 1955 until 1963. A three-track yard existed at the site, and the daily freight from McCloud would daily swap empty cars for loads with the Burney switcher. A wye remains just to the south at the start of the Sierra branch.
Burney at M.P. B-61 is the official end of the Burney branch. At one time a yard existed here, but most of the yard tracks were removed in around 2000 to make way for a truck to rail reload for the Big Valley Lumber Company and a power-boosting station for a fiber optic cable that was being built through the area. From 1955 to 1963 the railroad based a switcher out of Burney to work the sawmills and the logging railroad lines that went into the harvest areas south and east of Burney. The Burney switcher would also make occasional trips as far as Ditch Creek if needed. A small engine house, section house and headquarters office is located at the Burney terminus.
Sierra Branch
The Sierra Branch was built as a 7 - mile branch that ran from Berry and looped around to the southwest of Burney to the Scott Lumber Company sawmill. The mill was eventually purchased by Sierra Pacific Industries and along with Dicalite Corporation originated the last and majority of traffic on the railroad.
CHRONOLOGY
1896
The railroad grade was excavated to a point just beyond the summit between the Sacramento and McCloud River drainages and 4 miles of tracks laid to what became Howard, from the junction at the town of Upton with the Central / Southern Pacific line running from San Francisco California to Portland Oregon.
1897
The grade and tracks were completed to what was then called Vandale on July 21, and the McCloud River Lumber Company and McCloud River Railroad were formed. The lumber company owned the majority of stock in the railroad company, with the board of directors of the railroad also being the board of directors of the lumber company and for legal purposes owing minority shares in the railroad.
1898
The railroad expanded northeastward, Ash Creek Branch, to the Holbrook mill on Ash Creek, which burned in 1903, and the branch was abandoned.
1900-1920
Tracks were extended to the east toward Bartle's and spurs built and removed as necessary to log the “flats” east of McCloud.
1902
Scott and Van Arsdale sold their shares, a majority, in the lumber company and the railroad to a group of Minnesota timber capitalists.
1905
Tracks reached Bartle and a two story combination passenger / freight station was constructed. Passenger service was inaugurated with a daily train leaving Bartle at 6:45 AM reaching Upton at 9:50 AM and leaving Upton at 1:00 PM and returning to Bartle at 3:45 PM. The timing allowed connections with Southern Pacific passenger trains, and stage lines out of Bartle then connected to points to the east in the Fall River Valley. Freight was handled by wagon using the Lockhart Wagon road east of Bartle, again to points in the east.
In the same year the main line was extended three miles to the flats at the top of Bartle Hill
1906
The main line was extended an additional eleven miles to the north. There were ideas of extending this line into timber lands that McCloud lumber owned to the north and to Klamath Falls. The purchase of the Weed Lumber Company's rail line from Weed to Grass Lake and its extension into Klamath Falls by 1909 by the California Northeastern, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad made these ideas unfeasible.
Subsequently, the main line developed a tendency to migrate in the areas north of the top of Bartle Hill, following the cutting as the lumber company moved to virgin timber tracts.
1907
Due to the expansion of the mill at McCloud, the layout of yard track, and the lack of space to expand the mill and box factory the yard at Upton became redundant and the terminus of the railroad was changed from Upton to Sisson (renamed Mt. Shasta in 1924/27). This resulted in shortening the line by 0.94 miles and eliminating a switchback just outside of Upton. All trackage to Upton was removed except a short portion at the junction of the old and new lines, which became a spur named Burk.
1917
Ownership of the railroad was formally divested from the lumber company, with the railroad stock being transferred to the shareholders of the lumber company.
1921 - 1929
A rail line from Bartle to the Pit River was constructed by the Mt. Shasta Power Corporation – Pit River Power Development (owned by Pacific Gas & Electric). Built to bring in materials and supplies for the construction of dams, tunnels, and powerhouses at Pit 1, 3, and 4 it was operated by the McCloud River Railroad. Originally restricted to hauling for PG&E, it became a common carrier line in later years. However, traffic was not enough to support it, and it went out of service in 1929 and the track was removed in 1934.
1923
The main line migrated into newly acquired timberland with a new branch line at five miles northeast of Car "A" from a point named Santa Claus Junction.
1925
Camp 2 was established, then renamed Pondosa Camp. It included extensive rail yards and a repair shop. In 1929 the location became Hambone.
1927
Timber cut shifted to the south and a decision was made to abandon the practice of building temporary camps; a town of Pondosa was established and the buildings, equipment, and name at Pondosa Camp was loaded on to rail cars and moved 10 miles to the south.
1929
To provide another connection with the outside world, the line from Car "A" to Hambone was re-established as a common carrier and Hambone was established as a junction point. McCloud, utilizing existing logging spurs and some new construction, built a line from Hambone to Lookout Junction on the Great Northern Railway's new main line. In 1930 it was sold to the Great Northern at the Western Pacific. An agreement was reached for McCloud to operate the line as Great Northern realized that the economics of furnishing locomotives and train crews on a line from "nowhere to nowhere in the middle of nowhere" didn't make any sense.
1949
First diesel locomotive delivered.
1950
A new connection was added between Pondosa and Curtis and then to Bartle and main line from Car "A" to Pondosa was abandoned.
1953
The last active steam engine, No. 25, was retired.
1954
The construction of a new line from Bartle Wye to Burney was started using the existing new line to Pondosa, portions of logging spurs, portions of the PG&E line to the Pit River, and new construction. A temporary terminal was established at Cayton while the Lake Britton Trestle was being erected.
1955
With the Trestle across lake Britton completed and ten miles of new line constructed to Burney, haul of logs from the Fruit Growers Supply sale commenced. A depot building, single-stall engine house, and small yard was built in Burney to support operations in that area.
1962
Taken out of retirement steam engine Number 25 starts sporadic excursion service.
1963
McCloud River Lumber Company sold to U.S. Plywood. U.S. Plywood stops log haul from the Burney area and pulls up lumber company spurs (U.S. Plywood later merged into Champion Papers Inc, eventually becoming Champion International).
1977
Intel Corporation purchased railroad from Champion International; 400 new box cars purchased by Intel. Intel was a leasing company involved with computers, aircraft, truck trailers, ships and rail box cars. The company purchased the McCloud River Railroad as they needed a "home" railroad to deal with the box cars.
1979
Champion International closed the McCloud sawmill, reducing carloads on the railroad from 7,820 cars in 1979 to 1,141 cars in 1980.
1982
Intel enters bankruptcy due to over extension into leasing fleets, market downturns, and a shift from moving lumber in box cars to using bulkhead and center beam flat cars.
Track structures and roadbed on the Burney line, main line from Bartle to McCloud and McCloud / Mt. Shasta line were rehabilitated under a Federal Railroad Administration grant.
Late 1980s:
Pondosa branch line was removed.
1990
In December the McCloud Historic Depot and office building burned, destroying company records and historic artifacts.
1992
The railroad was sold to Four Rails, Inc. McCloud River Railroad ends 96 1/2 years of corporate existence when name is changed to McCloud River Railway.
1997
100-year anniversary of the beginning of the railroad.
2003 – 2004
Lookout line is abandoned by Burlington Northern, successor to Great Northern due to lack of traffic, track is scrapped between Hambone and Lookout Junction.
2005
Four Rails, Inc., requests permission to abandon all lines east of McCloud.
2006
Trackage east of McCloud is embargoed and placed in out-of-service status.
2008
Track removal between McCloud and Burney begins.
2011
The McCloud Railway and the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train, wholly owned subsidiaries of Four Rails Inc. are sold. Lands remain property of Four Rails.
2012
McCloud Railway Rail-Banked lines from 3.3 miles east of McCloud to Hambone, Burney, the Sierra Branch and remnants of the Pondosa Branch. The rail-banked line was purchased by Shasta Land Trust on behalf of the Great Shasta Rail Trail Association (GSRTA). GSRTA was issued a Notice of Interim Trail Use.