Western Railroad Discussion > McCloud River Railroad Renaissance?

I met some friends in the Feather River Canyon a few weeks ago and decided that it would be nice to check out the old McCloud River Railroad on my drive back north to Seattle. After chasing a northbound autorack on the Gateway Subdivision, I took highway 89 to McCloud before taking I-5 north to Seattle. I had never been to McCloud before, but had oogled at the stories, movies, and even some juicy TO reports from the bygone days - I had to see it for myself!

I got there in the early afternoon and was fortunate to see that someone at the old shops working on something. I made myself known and got permission from a friendly employee who let me bum around the place with my camera. I didn't pry too much but below are the basics I gathered from the employee. Take this all with a grain of salt, I wasn't able to evaluate how intimate his knowledge was of the equipment or history of the railroad. 

1. There is a new owner in town with big plans to refurbish passenger equipment and motive power for a hopeful dinner train.
2. They plan on starting up with a railbike operation. They currently have a dozen railbikes that have been built and are going through final shakedown runs.
3. They hope to build the railbike venture, bringing in much needed tourism dollars to both the city of McCloud and the railroad.
4. With a hopeful injection of railbike cash, the railroad will use those resources to make track upgrades, fix motive power and fully restore two ex-VIA rail coaches currently in the shops. 

Here is my take and I hope I'm wrong. The railbikes are cute and will bring some life back to McCloud - but it won't be enough to see trains running anywhere on McCloud trackage. Bad is an understatement when describing the quality of the track still existing at McCloud. Tracks east of town have been ripped up for years. Tracks west of town have fully grown trees in the gauge and there are a handful of slides further up on the mountain. 

The employee told me that MCR 38 - The brown SD38 moves under its own power and that last year it went back and forth on a yard track west of the shop. MCR 36 - is not salvageable and has no plans for restoration. The two VIA coaches look bad from the exterior, but the interiors are actually in really good condition. Lights work, seat upholstery is intact, but the exterior paint is bad and EVERY SINGLE window is at least cracked, most fully shattered. In my very uneducated opinion - it feels too far gone but I wish them the best. 

 

---

---

---

Machine shop?

Crew Bathroom

Outback

---

---

---

[img::]https://cdn.trainorders.com/attachments/thumbs/1927000/7Y9A0660_6a70fd844c35f.jpg[/img]

Shattered hopes and dreams? 

---

We all wish them the best.

 

Thanks for the McCloud River RR update and images.  Appreciate your creative images on the current state of things in McCloud, CA.

During the railroad's last stand during 2009 and 2010, their only source of revenue was due to the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train. However, due to the Great Recession, the railroad shut down in January 2010, selling off the last steam locomotive, McCloud River Railroad #25, and also sold off all but two of their diesel locomotives. The railroad stayed shut down but not abandoned through the rest of the 2010s.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/26 16:29 by cozephyr.

There's a lot more to the story, but I'm not the keeper of the story. I still have large gaps of who, what and where. There is a McCloud Rwy group on Groups dot io and the neighbors have a number of FB accounts for a number of endeavours around the area. Jeff Moore / JDLX on TO has extensive information and history on his website.

The shops have been heavily vandalized and cleaned up 3 or 4 or more times ( had to re-phrase that ). There was an authorized person living in the warehouse for a few years, he had specific instructions not to physically interfere but simply call the County 911. During the past few summers the formal owner had spent large spans of time working on the shops and equipment. The RoW between McCloud and Mt Shasta was vary recently cleared of vegetation and had some amount of track repair.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/26 17:14 by TCnR.

Great coverage, McCloud area is one of my brother’s mother and father-in-laws favorite places. They’re actually headed up there at the end of the week. From what I saw looked like you had a fun time in the Feather River Canyon, shooting trains and soaking in the river.

This is so neat!  I was unaware of this effort!

That's an awesome old patternmaker's lathe they have in the machine shop. Doesn't look like it gets much use. 

An article appeared in Railfan and Railroad Magazine on August 4th: https://railfan.com/mccloud-railway-on-track-for-revival/

McCloud Railway On Track For Revival by —Justin Franz 

The McCloud Railway, one of California’s most famous short lines that has been closed for 16 years, is reopening. On August 4, the short line announced that it would soon resume operations, and sources close to the effort tell Railfan & Railroad that they hope to begin offering rail bike rides later this year and diesel-powered excursions in 2027.

The railroad was founded by the McCloud River Lumber Company in 1897 as the McCloud River Railroad Company. The railroad’s primary purpose was to move logs and connect the company’s sawmill near Mt. Shasta with the Southern Pacific. Eventually, the railroad operated a 130-mile route through the woods of Northern California. The railroad was owned by a number of companies before being sold to Jeff Forbis’ 4-Rails, Inc., which renamed it the McCloud Railway. In the 1990s, the railroad began offering excursions, including behind steam. Freight traffic continued to decline, and by the 2000s, it had become a struggling excursion railroad. In early 2010, McCloud ceased operations, and the following year it was purchased by Mike Williams Group. Little has happened on the railroad since. 

Recently, Williams was joined by a new business partner who wanted to revive the line, which today includes about 15 miles of main line between McCloud and Mt. Shasta. This year, workers have been slowly clearing the right-of-way of trees and brush. They have also been working on two McCloud SD38 locomotives and some ex-VIA Rail equipment that will be used on future excursions. The rail bike tours, operating under the name Shasta Railbike Experience, are expected to start even sooner out of McCloud. 

The railroad plans to host a volunteer weekend on September 25-27. Among the projects to be tackled are clearing the right-of-way, replacing ties, repairing buildings, prepping locomotives and cars, and getting three recently reacquired speeders up and running. For more information, visit McCloud Railway Company on Facebook. 



This article was posted on: August 4, 2026



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/26 18:41 by TTStetz3.