Western Railroad Discussion > "McCloud Railway engine stranded on broken track"

As of mid- week, McCloud Railway #37 is apparently still on the ground near the McCloud Avenue (old Howard station site) above Mt. Shasta City.

Link to news article...looks like a little bit of a mess.

http://www.mtshastanews.com/article/20130327/NEWS/130329807

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

This was discussed a week or so ago. Court Hammond derailed the locomotive after doing some underhanded work.

TonyJ Wrote:
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> This was discussed a week or so ago. Court Hammond
> derailed the locomotive after doing some
> underhanded work.

Does anyone know who else was with him?

Z

I have poked around both here and on Altamont, and can't really find much info about what lead up to the derailment. Apparently there was some issue with loaded LPG tanks stored on McCloud tracks at McCloud, a Yreka Western high rail seems to be involved, and we know the McCloud 37 is derailed outside of Mt. Shasta city. I probably missed something, but that's all I could find. Can anyone fill in any factual details? Why the heck was the 37 out and about.

JBWX

jbwest Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have poked around both here and on Altamont, and
> can't really find much info about what lead up to
> the derailment. Apparently there was some issue
> with loaded LPG tanks stored on McCloud tracks at
> McCloud, a Yreka Western high rail seems to be
> involved, and we know the McCloud 37 is derailed
> outside of Mt. Shasta city. I probably missed
> something, but that's all I could find. Can
> anyone fill in any factual details? Why the heck
> was the 37 out and about.

Without getting into too much of the hearsay...the situation appears to have started last summer when Mike Williams hired the Yreka Western to help out around McCloud, specifically to do track maintenance and assist the Williams Group employees in getting the dinner train cars roadworthy and then delivered to the UP for movement to the St. Maries River.

The hearsay part is that the YW's owner attempted to use the McCloud Railway to generate car storage fees for himself without the knowledge or permission of Mike Williams...once again, hearsay, but it's come to me from numerous disparate sources now. What's certain is that UP started delivering loaded propane tank cars to the Mt. Shasta City yards in late January/early February, and the McCloud Railway (operated by YW crews) ran a snowplow train to open up the line, and then at least tried bringing a UP gondola over from McCloud- I've received word that both the plow and the gondola derailed, and very well may be still out there along the line. The #37 did make it to Mt. Shasta City and spent some time in the yards and was apparently used to switch cars around, though none of them apparently ever made it to McCloud. Meanwhile, the propane cars became a point of some concern amongst the Mt. Shasta City residents and emergency response personnel, and when they started making phone calls to various parties, Valero stated they had the cars and they were in temporary storage while in transit to a Valero facility in California and that the situation was never meant to be a long-term storage situation (I add this contradicts some of the hearsay that reached my desk). UP removed all of the tank cars from the Mt. Shasta City yards around March 7-8 time frame. The #37 started back for McCloud around that same time and apparently only made it as far as where it now sits. The YW hi-railer was reported on scene back on March 13th. That's the latest report of any activity I've seen.

There is a whole lot else reported on Altamont.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

This would make a hellvu TV reality show!

Thanks Jeff.

Took these today. Looks like they tried to rerail it with no luck.

Sundance

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A few more shots of # 37

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